Nutritional rehabilitation: Feeding children, educating mothers
Malnutrition is a scourge that takes a life-long toll on
children in sub-Saharan Africa. Two out of every five children
are stunted in growth; one of three children is underweight.
Many are impaired in their intellectual development and unable
to succeed in school. Malnourished girls become young women who
are physically underdeveloped and vulnerable to difficult
pregnancies and childbirth. Dr. Barbara Nagy, a pediatritian
serving in Malawi, says “Malnutrition is so pervasive here it is
often overlooked, but it impacts just about every area of life
... ” The reasons for malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa are
many and varied: bad weather and crop failure, civil unrest that
forces families off their land, economic need that causes
farmers to sell the best of their harvest and keep little to
feed their families, and traditional practices that feed the
father first and give what’s left to the children. In
communities where many families have been str