Provide Plumpy'nut for children in the DR Congo

In January, our shipping manager, Andrew (pictured above), helped send out over 3,250 boxes of Plumpy'Nut to the DR Congo. Behind every person is an amazing life story. At the age of 22, Andrew was forced to flee violence in Sierra Leone with two of his sisters. They lived as refugees for over three years before the miraculous news came that a family in the United States wanted to be their sponsor.

While living in refugee camps, Andrew learned how to suppress hunger and go without food in his stomach for days. He heard the sound of grieving mothers in tents down the way who'd lost their children, because of the illnesses they could not defeat without the nutrients that make a state of health possible.

So when Andrew sends out any shipment on behalf of Edesia, it's not just a job that needs to be done, but a calling to end the suffering that he knows by heart. And he knows that Sierra Leone refugees are no different than refugees living in the DR Congo. Everyone wants peace, good health, and a reason to have hope. 

With the latest shipments to the DR Congo, about 3,250 children with severe acute malnutrition will get the hope they need for a future. It seems like such a small number, when we think of the great need among children from families who have been displaced by the ongoing conflicts in the DR Congo (see report link below), but we do sincerely believe that the ripple effects of helping these children will be felt for generations to come.

Thank you for your ongoing caring and support and for believing - like we do - that the world changes, one life at a time.

Links:

• "Newly displaced in eastern Congo need urgent assistance"

The latest updates coming out of the DR Congo are troubling. The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported recently that over one million people have been displaced this year. Criminality is on the rise. Tensions persist. Stability is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, in the midst of these difficult circumstances, the bright, bubbly children of this central African country are in desperate need of nourishment, and hope.

This year, from our Providence, Rhode Island factory, Edesia has shipped over nourishment and hope in the form of 23,000 boxes of Plumpy'Nut to humanitarian organizations in the DR Congo - which is enough to potentially treat 23,000 children over a course of seven weeks. 

The humanitarian aid and community health workers in the DR Congo who are on the ground delivering this lifesaving treatment in hospitals and clinics are our heroes, just as much as you are our hero, for your continued support that helps make our work possible.

From all of us at Edesia, thank you for your amazing (and life-changing) partnership with us. It is making a world of difference.