The troubling statistics in a new report on the dire situation of malnutrition worldwide, issued by Save the Children, is a sad reminder that we need to do more to support the youth in developing countries.
The report states that 2.6 million child deaths each year have as their underlying cause -- malnutrition. A common sideeffect of malnutrition is stunting, which means that poor nutrition prevents children's bodies and brains from fully developing. The report points out that one in four children around the world are now stunted.
The facts are hard to swallow, but the lesson is clear: we need to address malnutrition now to stop this trend. The report identifies six steps to tackling malnutrition and Kageno is both relieved and proud to know that we are poised and already following these steps to address malnutrition in the communities where we work:
1. Visibility: Kageno's Vulnerable Child Assistance Program highlights the existence of malnutrition in the communities where we work. We don't hide this reality --we work with Community Health Mobilizers to identify the most vulnerable children in the community so that we can include them in this program. We're currently revamping this program to ensure that children identified as severely malnourished receive meals immediately and that we effectively improve their nutrition before they cycle off the program.
2. Invest in direct interventions: We partner with amazing organizations like Table for Two to find the funding necessary to provide daily school meals to the youth who need it most.
3. Fill the health worker gap: Before Kageno came to Banda Village, there was no proper health clinic and the nurse assigned to the village was rarely present or sober. The village now boasts a clinic with two in-take rooms, a minor surgeries room, and a laboratory. We also employ an incredibly qualified nurse. We also appealed to the Ministry of Health to partner with us in these efforts. They now send us two nurses and one lab technician to help us address the needs of Banda Village.
4. Protect families from poverty: Kageno's fundamental mission is to help these communities eradicate poverty. With an emphasis on women and children, we provide trainings, microloans, employment and much more to help change the course of poverty from the ground up.
5. Harness agriculture: One of our four program areas is agriculture. We help small, local farmers learn new techniques to increase yields and diversify their crops to improve nutrition at home. Our nurse also teaches lessons on varied diets to provide better nutrition. We use our own demonstration farms to provide vegetables and fruits to the children on our feeding program.
6. Galvanise political leadership: We need to use our work in places like Banda to appeal to the authorities in-country to help us tackle this issue. We do however hope that, through eco-tourism and our future eco-lodge, we will bring critical awareness to the problems like malnutrition that the government should be helping us address.
Kageno's nursery schools and feeding programs understand the importance of providing early education and nutrition to the youth in their most formative years. This period is essential for cognitive and physical development and we're doing everything we can to help children learn, eat and grow at a young age.
A new kitchen, currently being built in Banda through the generosity of Japanese organic grocer Oisix and TFT, has the potential to increase the number of children we feed 5-fold. Our goal is to expand beyond our feeding program and nursery school in order to also feed the two primary schools in Banda village. We need your help to do this.
To take action in directly addressing malnutrition where Kageno works,
For more information on the kitchen project and the funding needed to expand our feeding program, please email [email protected].
Thank you for joining us in this fight to battle malnutrition and to give vulnerable children a fair, healthy opportunity to grow into successful adults.
Children line up on Mfangano for mealtime, Jan. 2012
Some of Banda's kids on the malnourished feeding program. Photo provided by Lauren de Remer
source: Save the Children, "A Life Free from Hunger"
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