Princess is a four-year-old girl from Bago City, Philippines. She loves to pretend she is cooking. Princess lives in a small bamboo house with her parents and brother. Her father is a carpenter, and he has difficulty supporting his family.
Unfortunately, Princess is living with acute malnutrition. She often complains of hunger, and she is visibly frail. Princess began malnutrition treatment on October 17, 2016.
Princess is being treated by International Care Ministries (ICM), a Watsi medical partner. One out of five children under 5 in 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 additional food to regain normal weight and achieve optimum physical and mental development. After identifying a child as 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.