Meet Marife, a 15-month-old baby girl from the Philippines. Marife lives with her family in a small bamboo house, and she loves to play with her neighbors. Marife’s father works as a laborer, while her mother stays at home to take care of her. Marife has been diagnosed with moderately acute malnutrition. She began $184 malnutrition treatment on October 19.
Marife is being treated by International Care Ministries (ICM), a Watsi medical partner. One out of five children under five in ICM communities is either severely or moderately acutely malnourished. Worldwide, poor nutrition is associated with nearly half of all deaths in young children. In remote communities and urban slums of the Philippines, the lack of clean water and unclean environments add risk to potentially fatal childhood diseases.
ICM’s Home-Based Feeding program provides nutrient-enriched food packs to ensure malnourished children get additional food to regain normal weight and achieve optimum physical and mental development. After identifying a child as malnourished, staff and community volunteers make weekly visits to monitor this child’s progress. To help sustain the health of the child, ICM’s professional staff educate the mother, guardian, or other family members about proper nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, and organic vegetable gardening.
Marife’s parents need help to fund this treatment. They share with us, “We hope that Marife will grow up healthy.”
