Pierre weighed just 7 kilograms - that's half of what a boy his age should weigh. 

It was a race against time to save his life.

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This is Pierre

Pierre was so malnourished that he get sick with pneumonia. He couldn't eat, and his legs had swelled so badly that he couldn't walk.
His mum had to carry him over 15 kilometers to a Save the Children hospital.


Every year, some 3 million children die from malnutrition.

For those who survive, a happy a successful life still hangs in the balance – malnutrition can leave them with irreversible physical and mental damage that will severely limit their future potential.

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He was so sick.

Pierre's mum was scared for his life. He was fading fast.
But thanks to supporters like you, Pierre survived.
Doctors immediately put him on a course of antibiotics and therapeutic food.


WHAT 100 YEARS OF SAVING CHILDREN HAS TAUGHT US

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Many families live trapped in a cycle of poverty. Undernourished mothers are more likely to have undernourished children. Communities and entire countries also suffer, as less developed nations with large malnourished populations struggle to improve economic conditions with a reduced and weakened work force.

Your donations mean that we can save children like Pierre in the world’s poorest, most dangerous and hard-to-reach places. Not only do we deliver immediate life-saving treatment to seriously sick children, we work to prevent malnutrition before it starts.

Our long-term holistic solutions work with families and communities living in poverty, whose children are at direct risk of malnutrition because they can’t afford to buy enough nutritious food. Your donations help fund interventions like these:

  • Children like Pierre who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition are treated with a 10-week course of specially-formulated peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut.
  • Staple foods are enriched with crucial vitamins and minerals, like iodine and zinc.
  • In many cases families can’t afford to feed their children a nutritious diet, even if they spent all their income on food. We work with parents to improve their livelihoods and boost their incomes, for example by training them on how to grow different crops to sell.
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He was lucky.

This doesn't even look like the same child, but it is. Thanks to donors like you, Pierre was given the treatment he needed to save his life. He has gained weight and is back to playing football with his brothers. 
Your donations won’t just treat and feed malnourished children like Pierre, you’ll set him on a positive path so he can thrive for years to come.