Malnutrition
We administer life saving therapeutic milk to babies and toddlers suffering from starvation (severe acute malnutrition).
What is Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)?
One of the hardest things to witness is a baby or toddler suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition. These babies lack enough nutrients for their bodies to function. They may either be extremely skinny with their bones poking through their skin or they may have a protruding tummy as their body is fighting to keep what little nutrients they do have. They are unresponsive and though in total pain will lack the ability to cry out for help. Sadly, if SAM is not treated in a clinical setting it is often fatal.
How do you treat SAM?
Fortunately, the solution is pretty simple- fortified therapeutic milk that looks a lot like baby formula but is scientifically engineered for the specific treatment of SAM. Babies will be on therapeutic milk for 4 to 6 weeks until they are cured.
Babies that make it to our clinics in time have a 88% chance of survival!
Where do you work?
Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We provide nutritional supplements and therapeutic milk in countries where the infant mortality rate is high. This means that lots of babies are dying within the first year of their lives. The cause for malnutrition in each country varies but usually is a result of poor health infrastructure and lack of food security.