A Race Against Time

We face a race against time to save the life of a malnourished child.

Children with severe acute malnutrition are 9 times more likely to die than well-nourished children.

This Is Phoebe

Phoebe had diarrhoea and had been vomiting so much that her bones were visible through her baggy skin.

She had lost so much weight that she weighed half what a healthy 18-month-old should.

(Photo credit: Fredrik Lerneryd/Save the Children)

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.

She was shrivelled with hunger.

Phoebe was severely malnourished and fading fast.

But thanks to supporters like you, Phoebe survived.

She was immediately given a corn and cereal porridge and supplements of fortified peanut paste.

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 Phoebe 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 Phoebe 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.

She was lucky.

Within just a few weeks, Phoebe had gained a kilo and was smiling and playing again.

Her mum Joanne told us, “After eating the peanut paste, she has flat skin and her bones are not showing. It is good that I came to Save the Children to get help. I do not know how I would have fared without you.”

Your donations won’t just treat and feed malnourished children like Phoebe, you’ll set them on a positive path so he can thrive for years to come.

Thank you for your continued support!

*Names changed to protect identities.