“We dream that our daughter can study and become a teacher,” Celina’s mother shares.
Meet Celina, a 15-month-old girl from Guatemala. Celina is the youngest of seven children in her family and lives with her parents in an adobe house with a tin roof. She enjoys playing with her dolls and older sisters. Celina’s mother works at home, cooks, cleans, and cares for the children. Her father is a day laborer in the fields, who makes only a couple dollars per day.
Celina currently lives with acute malnutrition. She is below the average height and the average weight for her age, and she currently is not consuming enough calories and enough quality foods. As a result her physical growth is stunted, and we worry her mental growth will be stunted as well.
As a result of food insecurity and marginalization, indigenous Guatemalan villages have the highest rates of stunting in the world. In addition to growth stunting, malnutrition can lead to lower IQ, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
$512 will fund the treatment Celina needs to address her nutritional deficit and improve her low energy and subsequent limited mental potential. This involves micronutrient and food supplementation, deworming medication to rid Celina of a parasitic infection, and nutrition education for her parents. With these combined efforts, Celina will recoup her weight and height and strengthen her immune system, laying the foundation for a healthier future.