Sixteen thousand children of poor families around country will have free milk every day in a campaign by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to reduce malnutrition.

The VND7 billion ($333,000) campaign, launched on December 21 by the ministry's National Fund for Vietnamese Children, will last a year, giving every child two cartons of milk every day for two months. 

The campaign will begin at the start of the next year on Ly Son Island in the central province of Quang Ngai. 

One in every three Vietnamese children under five is stunted. Low consumption of milk is one of the reasons for the high malnutrition rate. 

The campaign, which began in 2008 with the support of the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), has benefited nearly 300,000 children.