Norma is a sixteen-month-old baby girl from Guatemala. Norma has not been able to grow like she should. She is suffering from acute malnutrition, a dangerous condition caused by a lack of protein, calories, and nutrients. She has been hospitalized twice before due to malnutrition and pneumonia, and her mother has been unable to sleep due to concern about this reoccurring. Norma’s immune system has grown weak as a result; meaning that sickness, fever, or a respiratory illness could be life-threatening.
Norma lives with her family in a one-room adobe house with a tin roof. Her family lives on about two dollars per day, nowhere near enough for her to afford to give Norma even one piece of fruit, vegetable, or egg per day–making it impossible for her to overcome her malnutrition without treatment.
Growth monitoring, micronutrients and food supplementation will help Norma recover from malnutrition. For $512, she will get the treatment and care she needs. She will gain weight, grow taller, and her immune system will improve. Her appetite will increase, allowing extra calories to be used for mental development rather than fighting illness. Her mother will receive the support to give Norma the diet she needs, even with their limited resources.
Intervention now will prevent the future devastating effects of malnutrition and give Norma the chance to live a healthy and productive life, escaping the cycle of malnutrition and poverty that made her sick in the first place.
Norma’s mother shares, “I hope that my daughter can overcome malnutrition.”