It’s a sad fact that many children around the world don’t get enough to eat, and the foods they do eat often lack essential nutrients vital to a child’s overall health and growth. Malnutrition slows a child's development and makes them vulnerable to a number of illnesses.
Good nutrition is a building block for proper development that strengthens the immune system, enhances cognitive and physical development and increases concentration in school. Children who don’t get the foods and nutrients necessary to maintain proper nutrition are denied all these benefits.
How We Help
We help address the nutritional needs of children and youth in the following ways:
Sponsored children receive regular health and malnutrition screenings.
Our feeding programs treat malnourished children by providing them with nutritious meals and regular monitoring of progress.
Parents are taught nutrition fundamentals and are provided with meal-preparation training and information about preparing nutritious meals from locally available, inexpensive foods.
CI field agencies use different methods to improve the nutrition of their sponsored populations. Three examples are:
In Zambia, we run feeding programs in Lusaka community schools to ensure every student receives at least one nutritious meal per day.
In Ecuador, a community center features a garden where sponsored kids and parents can learn how to successfully grow a variety of nutritious vegetables.
In the Philippines, we teach sponsored parents innovative ways to grow nutritious foods in crowded urban areas.
MORE OF THE STORY
The UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) has identified malnutrition as the largest single contributor to disease in the world. Left untreated, malnutrition can inhibit the physical and cognitive development of children and lead to lifelong consequences.
Learn more about how we work to help children and youth maintain adequate nutrition.
