I am writing today to share the news that, thanks to you, our project has been fully funded. Your generosity helped us reach more children in danger of losing their lives to severe acute malnutrition in the Horn of Africa.
We wish we could say the malnutrition crisis was over for all the world's children, but the harsh reality is that over 55 million children need us to keep going, keep extending our reach farther, because they are severely malnourished.
Here at Edesia, we have been especially concerned about the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, which is why we have launched a new project to help severely malnourished children get the Plumpy'Nut they need to survive and thrive. Please consider clicking on the "Give Now" button below to initiate a one-time or reoccuring donation to this project.
Thank you again for your part in helping us save the lives of more children around the world through the incredible power of Plumpy'Nut.
As the year 2013 comes to an end, and as our project nears its funding goal, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your incredible outpouring of support, which has humbled all of us at Edesia. I also wanted to share with you what our nonprofit factory in Providence, Rhode Island has achieved on behalf of severely malnourished children in the Horn of Africa over the past few years.
Since, 2010 we have produced and shipped out 109,267 boxes of Plumpy’Nut to our humanitarian partners in the region. This is enough to fully treat 109,267 severely malnourished children in about seven weeks. It's incredible to consider, but just one $53 box of Plumpy'Nut gives back the gift of one child's life.
Even though our project is closing, we are not scaling back our efforts in the Horn of Africa or throughout the other regions of the world where childhood malnutrition rates are alarmingly high. There are over 19 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in our world who have yet to be reached. Our factory will continue to make Plumpy'Nut for as long as it is needed.
We appreciate your helping hands joining with ours, so that we could stretch ourselves a little farther to help as many malnourished children as possible through this project. We hope that you'll stay in contact with us through Facebook or Twitter or simply by visiting our website.
With warm regards,
Heidi Reed
Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day. It is a time to recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. Since the summer of 2011, we have been sending thousands of boxes of Plumpy'Nut to the Horn of Africa region. Even though we don't know all of their names, we are so grateful to all of the humanitarian workers on the ground in this region that make the miracle of treatment with Plumpy'Nut possible.
Two years after the height of the famine crisis, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, in the Horn of Africa, there have been some improvements in overall food security, livelihoods and the nutrition situation, but thousands of children remain in urgent need of life-saving interventions such as Plumpy'Nut - which is why we continue our work here at the factory in Providence, Rhode Island.
Thank you for your commitment to humanitarian causes. You are helping transform the lives of those who are starting out with so little.
I just wanted to send a brief update - from our Providence, Rhode Island factory - to let you know that 48,000 boxes of Plumpy'Nut are to be shipped from our warehouse to Ethiopia from now until October. This is enough of our peanut-based, therapeutic food to reach as many as 48,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Everyone who works at Edesia feels grateful to be part of the manufacturing process that helps get Plumpy'Nut into the hands of children - through our humanitarian partners on the ground, who are on the frontlines of saving young lives every day.
It's interesting to note that Ethiopia, in the heart of the Horn of Africa, has made remarkable progress over recent years in reducing child mortality rates. As you can see in the attached PDF document, in 1990, some 198 children out of 1,000 in Ethiopia died before the age of five. In 2011, that number dropped to 77, and progress continues. We like to think that stronger community-based health and nutrition programs, which include therapeutic foods like Plumpy'Nut, are indeed helping and having an impact.
A heartfelt thank you, from all of us at Edesia, for your continued support of our project that is helping give children and families health and hope.
Links:
"Since she started eating the peanut paste, she has improved." Nimon Ahmed, Nadjma's mother
In January 2013, from our Providence, Rhode Island facility, we made well over 1,000,000 pounds of peanut-based, nutritious Ready-to-Use Food to treat or prevent childhood malnutrition all over the world. From our side, this looks like 38,571 cartons, which are sealed, loaded into containers, taken to port, and shipped overseas. From the other side, where the red and white Plumpy'Nut boxes are received by humanitarian organizations like UNICEF, these boxes contain a miracle in waiting for thousands of young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
For today, I wanted to share with you a recent video posted by UNICEF Somalia that perfectly illustrates how Plumpy'Nut is an integral part of a community-based approach to solving the problem of childhood malnutrition in developing countries. I think you'll especially love seeing little Nadjma on her mother's hip, pink-cheeked and healthy after two months of eating Plumpy'Nut.
Together we are turning the tragedy of childhood malnutrition into a story of hope for little girls like Nadjma and for millions of other children in our world. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
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