Cat-Cat is a three-year-old girl from General Santos, Philippines, living with her parents in a bamboo house with a metal roof in a squatter area without proper water supply and electricity. Her father is a laborer at a fish port, making barely enough to sustain the daily needs of the family. As a result, Cat-Cat is lighter than other kids her age, suffering from moderately acute malnutrition.
One out of five children under 5 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 the additional food to regain normal weight, and achieve optimum physical and mental development. After identifying a child being 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 hope that she will recover from malnutrition, grow to become strong and healthy,” said Cat-Cat’s parents.