Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
A child dies every six seconds from
severe acute malnutrition.
It’s preventable. And it’s curable.
There are about a billion hungry people in the world. Hunger gives way to chronic malnutrition, and in its most severe form, severe acute malnutrition kills up to 2 million kids a year. The problem is at its worst in Africa, where poverty and famine send communities spiraling into a cycle of hunger.
THE CYCLE OF HUNGER
- A child becomes acutely malnourished and the mother must leave what little livelihood she has – typically farming – to take the child to the nearest hospital.
- Long walks give way to crowded waits in makeshift centers. If admitted, she remains as the caregiver in a crowded malnutrition ward, which is often a room with rows of straw mats, as the child is treated.
- Disease is transmitted easily between the weakened children in the ward.
- And if the child survives and returns home, it is often to siblings and other family members who have sunken into a deeper level of crisis.
