LEADING rice company Tilda will revisit a successful fundraising campaign to help new and expectant mothers in Bangladesh fight malnutrition, it was announced this week.
To coincide with Mother’s Day on Sunday (31), Tilda will donate funding from every purchase of the specially marked ‘Helping Mums Together’ packets of rice.
According to statistics from the UN World Food Programme (UNWFP), a quarter of Bangladesh’s population (160 million people) are affected by a lack of food security. Acute hunger affects approximately 11 million people.
Now in its fifth year, the collaboration between UNWFP and Tilda helps expectant mothers to-be suffering from acute malnutrition in Bangladesh.
In 2017, Tilda’s ‘Mums helping Mums’ campaign meant that UNWFP were able to purchase Supercereal Plus and could supply it for those in need.
Supercereal, a porridge product containing wheat, soya, vitamins and minerals, can be given to young children, and pregnant and nursing women.
Many women and children have benefitted from the campaign including Hamida, 20, a refugee from Myanmar. She fled Myanmar with her husband when she was heavily pregnant and sought refuge in Bangladesh.
Her son, Ziabur Rahman, was born three days after they arrived in the country. Subsequent to receiving help from the UNWFP nutrition programme, Hamida would struggle to get the nutrients she needed to be able to breastfeed her son.
However, now that she receives Supercereal food herself, she is able to breastfeed him, ensuring he receives the nutrition he needs.
Another mother, Nur Safa, has revealed how the nutrition programme has benefited her family. The 27-year-old refugee lives in a camp in Bangladesh with her husband and their five children. Since her children have started receiving the Supercereal, she said they are now growing properly and are not sick any more.
She also receives nutrition education when she goes to collect the food, which she credits for helping her take better care of her children.
The relaunched movement is now joined by Ruby Bhogal, finalist in the 2018 Great British Bake Off.
Bhogal has helped create a special Mother’s Day dish using Tilda Pure Basmati rice.
Inspired by her own mother, Bhogal’s recipe is designed to celebrate the special bond between parent and child by cooking and sharing the recipe with family and friends.
Bhogal said: “I’ve been lucky enough to grow up as part of a close family where food is a core part of what we share. As part of that, it can be easy to take the basics for granted, and to lose sight of a world where a lack of basic nutrition in expectant mothers is a very real issue”.
This year, the organisations aim to hit a target of 1.8 million nutrition-boosting meals being donated.
“Mother’s Day is a day of celebration, but on any day which brings families together over good food, knowing that the event can help those less fortunate makes it even more
special,” Anna Beheshti, brand lead at Tilda, said.
“Every specially marked pack of Tilda rice sold will directly benefit mothers and children by
delivering the right specialist food supplements to those regions in Bangladesh in most need."
To date, over four million nutrition-boosting meals have been delivered to people in need.
Viram Jasani 
