Meet Consuelo, a 17-month-old baby girl from Guatemala. Consuelo lives with her large family in a one-room adobe house with a tin roof. Since she has so many brothers and sisters, her mother is unable to give all of them the nutrition they need to stay healthy. Since her father abandoned the family, Consuelo’s mother has been struggling to raise her and her siblings alone. She has had to move in with her parents, leave every morning before dawn to look for firewood to sell, and work on a farm harvesting peas in order to make enough money to even buy just tortillas to eat. Consuelo does not even eat one egg, fruit, or vegetable per day.
Consuelo is far too small for her age, growing too slowly because of her malnutrition. Since she does not have access to a nutritious diet, she has been losing weight, getting sick more frequently, and lacking the energy to play and learn. Since her immune system is weakened by her low-calorie diet, getting sick not only takes away her energy and prevents her from growing, but is dangerous and can be life-threatening. If she does not receive treatment, she could face problems such as stunted neurodevelopment, chronic diseases, and difficulty getting and keeping a good job.
A multifaceted treatment consisting of growth monitoring, micronutrient and food supplementation, and deworming medication will help Consuelo recover from malnutrition–saving her life now and putting her on track to live a better life in the future. She will gain weight and grow taller to catch up with other children her age. Her immune system will grow stronger with the increased caloric intake, preventing her from having any more life-threatening situations with diarrhea, fevers, and cough.
Her mother will receive the support she needs to feel empowered to give Consuelo the diet she needs to grow and develop healthily. Intervention now will prevent the future devastating effects of malnutrition, and give Consuelo the chance to live a healthy and productive life, finish school, get a good job, and escape the cycle of malnutrition and poverty that made her sick in the first place. In her mother’s words, “I dream that my daughter will grow and when she’s big be a good student.”