Princess is a 2 year old girl from Palawan, Philippines. She lives in a simple bamboo house with a good source of water. She loves watching cartoons on their neighbor’s TV with other children. She also loves playing with other children. Her father is an artist and his mother takes care of him. This means that they cannot afford enough food for Princess and she is malnourished.
“I want our little Princess to become a businesswoman someday,” says her family.
Princess’s treatment occurred on 10/19/2016.
One out of five children under-5 in our medical partner ICM’s 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.
Our medical partner 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.