Why Nutrition
For millions of orphans and children around the world, essential nutrition is simply not an available option. Malnutrition is considered to be a child’s most difficult challenge. According to UNICEF’s most recent statistics, every year 7 million children die from malnutrition. That’s one child every six seconds! Children become malnourished when they don’t receive the adequate nutrients their bodies need to maintain health.
Food is not enough
Current food programs are mainly cereal-based and lack many of the nutrients young children need. According to the international relief organization Doctors Without Borders, food is not enough. In fact, these fortified, blended flours no longer meet the minimum nutritional criteria for young children set by experts at the World Health Organization. In other words, filling a child’s stomach not only fails to correct the problem, but it serves as only a temporary fix to a much bigger problem.
For millions of orphans and children around the world, essential nutrition is simply not an available option. Malnutrition is considered to be a child’s most difficult challenge. According to UNICEF’s most recent statistics, every year 7 million children die from malnutrition. That’s one child every six seconds! Children become malnourished when they don’t receive the adequate nutrients their bodies need to maintain health.
Devastating Facts:
- 1/3 to 1/2 of all childhood deaths in the world are linked to malnutrition.
- Undernutrition contributes to 53% of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in
developing countries.1 - Vitamin A deficiencies affect approximately 25% of the developing world’s pre-schoolers and
lead to the death of approximately 1–3 million children a year.2 - Iodine deficiency is the greatest single cause of brain damage in young children.2
- An average of 450,000 children under age five die due to zinc deficiency.3
Our strategy
Children suffering from malnutrition need more natural, nutrient-dense foods to best support their nutritional needs. Recent advancements in hydroponically grown vegetables are an example of how modern science can provide new sources of standardized, plant-sourced nutrients that can meet this need. Doctors Without Borders and other relief-oriented organizations have called for the development of ready-to-use solutions to supply to children in need.
For millions of orphans and children around the world, essential nutrition is simply not an available option. Malnutrition is considered to be a child’s most difficult challenge. According to UNICEF’s most recent statistics, every year five million children die from malnutrition. That’s one child every six seconds! Children become malnourished when they don’t receive the adequate nutrients their bodies need to maintain health.
What this means for children
Getting proper and sufficient nutritional support in the first few years of life is critical for child development. Lack of proper nutritional support in children under five can cause effects that can last a lifetime. Thanks to MannaRelief, children can now get the nutritional support their growing bodies need. The various products MannaRelief offers are suitable to feed to children as they can be easily added to any cooked meal or given in chewable form.
What this means for caregivers
Finding decent, edible food for all three meals of the day for dozens of children at a time is hard enough. Making those meals nutritious and healthy for the human body is an even more challenging task. Not anymore. With the nutritional support MannaRelief provides, caregivers can simply add a serving into any cooked meal or provide a chewable supplement to the children providing them with the nutrient support their bodies require.
How can you help
Download brochures, videos, presentations and tools to help spread the word about malnutrition and share easy ways to get involved.
Help spread the word about MannaRelief and the #1 problem children face by shopping our online store.
Give proper nutritional support to a child in the Hope program.
1Under Five Deaths By Cause, UNICEF, 2006. 2‘UN Standing Committee on Nutrition’. World Nutrition Situation 5th Report, 2005. 3‘Investing in the Future:
A United Call to Action on Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies’, UNICEF/MI/WHO, 2009.