Mark Daniel is a three-year-old boy from the Philippines who currently lives with acute malnutrition.
“Mark and his parents live in a small house made of bamboo and GI Sheets with no access to water or electricity,” explains our medical partner, International Care Ministries (ICM). “Mark’s father Joerey is a furniture maker assistant. Mark loves to interact with other people despite his condition.”
About 20 percent of children in communities served by ICM are acutely malnourished. Malnutrition leads to delayed brain development and depresses the immune system, making it far easier for children to contract serious diseases. This risk increases in remote communities and urban slums, where children often don’t have access to clean drinking water.
For $268, ICM will enroll Mark in a home-based feeding program, where he’ll receive nutrient-enriched food packs to help him resume normal development. Staff and community volunteers will make weekly visits to his home to monitor progress, and ICM staff will help educate his parents about nutrition, sanitation and vegetable gardening.
“I hope Mark will recover from malnutrition,” his father says.