A mother attends to her severely malnourished child at an inpatient feeding centre in Mao, Chad. Plumpy’Nut is used to treat this potentially deadly condition (UNICEF Chad/2011/ Esteve)
For Mother’s Day we can make a difference for the millions of hungry children around the world who struggle to survive the first 1000 days of life. As Herbert Hoover once said about the tragedy of hunger, it “sits beside every anxious mother three times each day.”
Infants caught in war, disaster and poverty zones in Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, Syria, Mali, South Sudan, Pakistan and other nations often do not get access to the nutrition that they need.
When this happens, they suffer lasting physical or mental damage, or even death.
UNICEF said in a recent report, “Globally, about one in four children under five years old are stunted.” Generation after generation in these countries are stunted in growth and mind.
If the hunger-afflicted nations had enough supply of the miracle food Plumpy’Nut we could stabilize the malnutrition emergency, and save a generation. Only then, with healthy children, can a nation develop the longer-term solutions to hunger and poverty.
On this Mother’s Day remember the millions of infants around the world who just need these 33- cent packets of food to avoid the potential catastrophe in those early years.
Providence-based Edesia, UNICEF and Save the Children are some of the charities that need donations to buy Plumpy’Nut. Millions of children and their mothers can be spared the tragedy of hunger and malnutrition.
That is the gift they need most of all.
Originally published at Cincinnati.com
Author William Lambers 