Lovely Jean is a 6-month-old girl from the Philippines. She lives with her parents and three siblings in a wooden house with no floor. Her mother is a housewife, while her father is a farmer. Lovely Jean is thin and has a bloated stomach.
Lovely Jean has been diagnosed with moderately acute malnutrition. She began $184 malnutrition treatment on October 21. She 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.
“We will try our best to provide for her,” says Lovely Jean’s mother, “and I hope she will be able to finish her studies.”