Food for malnourished children

Help restore malnourished children’s health.

An unprecedented combination of regional conflicts, sharply rising costs, extreme weather events, and the ongoing social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is making it harder for parents to ensure their kids get enough nutrition. An estimated 22 million children around the world are facing starvation. Your gift will help malnourished children get the food they need to recover and grow strong for a healthier future.

Even before the pandemic, the number of families going hungry had started to climb back up after years of global progress. The effects of the current combined global crises have pushed millions more back into poverty and hunger.

Therapeutic food packets rescue kids from the brink of starvation. Made of energy-dense peanut paste fortified with micronutrients, the ready-to-eat food delivers the right balance of nutrition — and makes a big impact on children’s health — fast.

For children like 2-year-old Minara, the ready-to-eat food can be life-saving. She’s one of nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh after violence drove them from their homes in Myanmar. Without adequate nutrition, Minara was struggling to survive. “Day by day she was getting tinier,” said Jaheda, Minara’s mother. “People were telling me, ‘Your daughter will not live.’” It was a dark time for Jaheda, who thought, “Am I going to lose my baby?”

Minara is one of about 350 children who come daily to World Vision’s program in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to receive therapeutic food.  The malnutrition treatment centers serve an estimated 13,000 children in refugee camps in Bangladesh, reviving their health through therapeutic food and nutrition classes for caregivers.

Therapeutic food packets restored Minara’s strength and vitality. Once she was so weak from malnourishment that she had no interest in playing and was susceptible to rashes and illnesses. After just a few months of visiting the treatment center, Minara is a different child — happy, healthy, and playful.

Over the last 10 years, 89% of the severely malnourished children we treated made a full recovery. Your gift will help ensure more children like Minara can recover from malnutrition.