Lifesaving Plumpy'Nut for Children in the Sahel

The Sahel is a vast region of Africa, spanning over 3,600 miles. That distance is the equivalent of a long walk from Los Angeles to New York City and then onward to New Orleans. It's an area of our world where it is estimated that at least 1.4 million children remain in danger of losing their lives to severe acute malnutrition.

In countries like Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mauritania, clean water is scarce, food prices remain shockingly high, and safety nets are nearly nonexistent. Humanitarian organizations, community-based organizations, and fragile governments, in the meanwhile, are doing the best they can to alleviate human suffering while working toward the ideal of building resilience.

In reality, millions of people are going to bed hungry each night in the Sahel, and children especially are ill-equipped to handle such hardships. They need fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and nutrients to get their chance at life, which is why we do what we do from our Providence, Rhode Island factory, and why we continue to ship thousands of boxes of lifesaving Plumpy'Nut and Plumpy'Sup to the Sahel region of Africa. 

With this Project Report, I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation of your continued support and to share with you an informative update from IRIN Africa, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on why more help is needed in the Sahel. We are grateful for your partnership with us, but most of all, for the depth of your caring and concern. 

Links:

• Report on the Sahel

“Malnutrition is not really about lack of food,” explains Deputy Representative of UNICEF Burkina Faso Sylvana Nzirorera. “It’s about how much a mother knows about feeding a young child, and this is linked to the whole issue of educated mothers ... " 

Here at Edesia's factory in Providence, Rhode Island, we often get asked how Plumpy'Nut helps end the larger problem of childhood malnutrition. It's a great question. Plumpy'Nut itself is a frontline tool used in nutrition centers all over the world, where severe acute malnutrition is prevalent, to save lives. It's so successful, over 90% of children in a Plumpy'Nut treatment program will recover and continue to grow and thrive. 

The other long-term benefit of Plumpy'Nut is that it starts an important conversation between a mother (or father) and a community health worker or doctor. When a mother seeks treatment for her sick child, she comes into contact with new knowledge about the importance of nutrition itself. This helps her sick baby, her other family members at home, and herself.

Often times, severe acute malnutrition is the end result of an unvaried diet. That's why organizations like UNICEF are emphasizing education to reduce childhood malnutrition. Today, I want to share with you a short video from UNICEF Burkina Faso (see link below), showing how mothers are learning how to prevent malnutrition in the first place. It's very encouraging to see. 

With 20 million children in our world suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and over 1 million of them living in the Sahel, this is exactly the kind of solution that will help reduce the need for Plumpy'Nut in the future. 

In the meantime, our factory will continue to make Plumpy'Nut for the children who don't have time to wait for the longer-term solutions. Thank you for your continued support. We could not reach as many of these children without your help and caring. 

With gratitude and best wishes for a bright and hopeful holiday season from all of us at Edesia. 

Links:

• YouTube video: "Improving food security in Burkina Faso"