Child Malnutrition Cannot Wait
I recently returned from Nicaragua, where I was visiting families and local partners in the communities we serve. While I was there, I met a young mother named Chelsea and her little daughter, Lori Annie.
At just one and a half years old, Lori Annie is already fighting the effects of malnutrition.
Lori Annie has already been very sick. She has had pneumonia more than once, and doctors have told us that she is malnourished and undersized for her age in both weight and height. For a child this young, these early years are critical. Without proper nutrition, children can quickly fall behind in ways that are difficult to recover from.
Malnutrition is not just hunger.
It happens when a child does not receive enough nutritious food over time. Their bodies weaken, their growth slows, and they become more vulnerable to illness. Malnutrition can also affect their ability to learn and develop.
Without proper nutrition, the effects of malnutrition can follow a child for life, affecting their growth, health, and brain development during critical stages.
Through these programs, nurses and community workers support children’s nutrition and development, helping ensure they receive the care they need during these critical early years.
Families like Chelsea with her daughter Lori Annie also receive home food support, along with vitamins and supplements to help provide consistent nourishment and support healthy growth.
We need your help to ensure children like Lori Annie receive the nutrition and care they need, and right now your gift can go 2x as far to help reach even more children in urgent need.
No Child Should Have to Live in a Landfill
While in Nicaragua, I also visited another community where Speroway works, families are living in extremely difficult conditions on a local landfill.
While I was there, the smell, smoke, and heat were overwhelming, and I found it difficult to breathe. It bothered me that these children were having to rummage through a landfill to survive.
For many families here, daily life is shaped by what can be found or salvaged. Access to food is limited, and young children are especially vulnerable.
For many families here, daily life is shaped by what can be found or salvaged. Access to food is limited, and young children are especially vulnerable.
Speroway is working to support housing solutions in this community, but right now the most urgent need is food.
The stories I shared with you today are from Nicaragua but we need your help in many places that we work around the world..
Now is the time to act – when you support our malnutrition campaign you are not just helping families like these in Nicaragua but also in Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, and the Dominican Republic. Children in these communities cannot wait.