Lifesaving Plumpy'Nut for Children in the Sahel

I just got back from a week in Burkina Faso in the Sahel region of Africa, where severe acute malnutrition is common in young children. It was a rare opportunity for me to see how our products, made here in Rhode Island, are making a difference to the lives of children so far away in a UNICEF-supported clinic. When we ship out our boxes, we can only imagine the children who are receiving them .... but this time, I got to actually see children holding our red and white sachets in their hands. 

At a nutrition clinic on the outskirts of Ougadougou, the nation's capital city, I was introduced to a group of mothers who had walked for miles in flip flops to get there with their baby or twin babies on their backs. I learned that the mothers had given Plumpy'Nut the nickname of "Chocolate" in their language. When asked what they thought of Plumpy'Nut, they all expressed with great big smiles how much their children love the taste.

 These babies were no longer skin and bones but happy and healthy because their Plumpy'Nut treatments were well underway. The clinic also offers education for the mothers about how to provide better nutrition for the future. 

There is such magic in good nutrition at the time when it's needed most. I was especially in awe of the health workers from this clinic who had gone out into the community to locate the malnourished children in the first place. They told me what a challenge it can be to convince a mother to make the long trek to get nutritional support. Very often, they find a father who is ashamed that he has not been able to fully provide for his family, so he does not want his wife and child to go. But when the health worker shows the parents the Plumpy'Nut and lets their child have some, they see how the clinic has something special to offer and they come to get more. 

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful to you for making this work of helping children like the ones I met in Burkina Faso all the more possible.