RIYADH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center has launched an emergency nutritional support project for severely malnourished children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers in Pakistan.

Based in Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, the scheme is being run in partnership with the World Food Program and is set to benefit 57,500 people, more than 30,000 of them children, the KSrelief's media department said.

Recipients will be given food packages containing nutritional supplements and vitamins. Each contains enough supplies to last a month and will be distributed via health centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir, it said.

The scheme was inaugurated at a ceremony attended by Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammed Khalaf Al-Enezi, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Abdul Majid Khan and Health Minister Nassar Ansar Abdali, the director of the KSrelief branch in Pakistan, Khalid Al-Othmani, and the WFP’s Deputy Director for Pakistan Rathi PalaKrishnan.

The project comes within the framework of the Kingdom’s efforts, working through the center, to provide humanitarian aid to various countries.

The partnership between Saudi Arabia and the WFP dates back to 1973 and has accelerated since the establishment of KSrelief in 2015.

The WFP is one of the center’s strongest and most effective partners in addressing the challenges caused by hunger, food insecurity and the devastating effects of malnutrition.

Since its inception, KSrelief has contributed $1.23 billion to WFP for food assistance programs in 24 countries.