Lara Jane is 5-years-old and lives with her family in a house made of plywood and light materials in a mountainous area in the Philippines. Her father is a security guard earning and struggles to provide for the family. As a result, Lara Jane is very thin and weak, suffering from moderately acute malnutrition. Despite being a little weak, she loves to play with other kids and wishes she can have a teddy bear.
One out of every five children under the age of 5-years in our medical partner International Care Ministries (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.
“My desire for Lara Jane is that she’ll become an architect and that she will be strong and healthy,” said Lara Jane’s mother.
