Today is a day for champions—a day to call on global leaders to commit to ensuring all children have enough food to eat, no matter where they are born in the world.
Through its Early Childhood Development programs, ChildFund routinely monitors children’s growth to detect signs of malnutrition. (Photo: Jake Lyell)
Nearly 200 million children are chronically malnourished and suffer from lifelong, often irreversible, physical and cognitive damage as a result. Malnutrition also contributes to 35 percent of all deaths of children under the age of 5 annually, and roughly 20 percent of all maternal deaths.
Malnutrition is not just a result of poverty—it is also a cause.
As ChildFund’s CEO Anne Lynam Goddard often points out: Childhood is a one-time opportunity. We have one chance to get it right, especially when it comes to nutrition during the 1,000-day window that starts with a mother’s pregnancy and continues until a child is 2 years old.
Experts agree—nutrition delivers the biggest bang for the buck when investing in future generations. A panel of Nobel laureate economists known as the Copenhagen Consensus recently concluded that fighting malnutrition in young children should be the top investment priority for policymakers. The payoff is huge: $1 in invested in nutrition generates as much as $138 in better health and increased productivity.
Investing in improved nutrition can
- save more than 1 million lives each year
- increase a country’s GDP by 2 to 3 percent annually
- significantly reduce the human and economic burden of diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and diabetes
- help 360 million mothers and children have healthy futures.
Charting a child’s weight and height. (Photo: Jake Lyell)
At ChildFund, we emphasize growth promotion until the child is 3 years old. Helping ensure the health and security of infants is a critical component of our work with children throughout their life stages. Healthy infants are more likely to become educated and confident children, who, in turn, grow into skilled and involved youth. When children have a healthy start in life, they have a greater opportunity to break the bonds of poverty.
We fully support the Scaling Up Nutrition roadmap that is guiding the international aid community’s efforts to combat undernutrition.
Today on Capitol Hill, ChildFund is joining hands with other international development organizations, members of Congress, government leaders, civil society groups and private industry to call for action on child nutrition issues at the G8 Summit taking place this weekend at Camp David in Washington, D.C.
We call on leaders in the U.S. administration, Congress and G8 delegations to join us in support of improved nutrition globally, particularly for women and children in the 1,000 days from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday.
Our objectives are straightforward:
- Commit to concrete, time-bound goal(s) to reduce chronic malnutrition.
- Support the SUN movement and SUN countries’ efforts to improve nutrition.
- Ensure food security, agriculture and health investments are optimized to improve nutrition.
Now is the time for global leaders to reaffirm their commitment to confronting the challenges of hunger, poverty and disease by accelerating efforts to improve nutrition, particularly for women and children.
Will you join us and be a champion for change?
Within a year, after continued visits from Maria and with appropriate care, Irene was a healthy 18-month-old. She was still small for her age, but her weight was appropriate for her size. She also had caught up with her peers in three of five developmental areas.
The Wyan Toka Win community garden in South Dakota is a 
surplus vegetables and fruits they raise in the garden and selling them at the local farmer’s market to generate additional income.
In Mexico’s Totonaca region, 450 families have learned innovative agricultural techniques and are putting the knowledge to work on their own farms. This program is supported by
Nearly 9,000 people, especially women, in indigenous communities of Hidalgo, Mexico, are benefitting from ChildFund’s training programs to improve water usage, including proper collection and recycling techniques.
In many areas of Mexico’s Mixteca region, gradual erosion is negatively impacting the land. ChildFund works with children and youth to promote sustainable agriculture that will allow the production of healthy products without deteriorating soil fertility.
In 
In the mountains of Honduras, children in ChildFund’s programs are receiving a hands-on education in environmental awareness by planting fruit trees that will benefit their communities. And as part of ChildFund’s Friendly Schools program, children in some areas of Honduras receive comprehensive environmental education and participate in practical projects such as maintaining school gardens.
About 180 teenagers from urban areas of 
From early childhood, children in 
About 200 families at the Lucerito Center in the city of Santa Cruz will benefit from ChildFund’s environmental training program focused on reducing and reusing waste to preserve the environment.
In the Ecuadorian province of Tungurahua, children enrolled in ChildFund programs are participating in the “Futurahua” (Water Future) project. They are learning about the importance of water sustainability and its role in the production of crops that feed their families.
With the donation of more than 50,000 native plant species, 
In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha Valley, ChildFund’s Water Watchers Program engages children and youth leaders in environmental education, contributing to the preservation and proper usage of water resources that are so scarce in this area.
ChildFund’s Water for Life Program in the rural semi-arid areas of Brazil has involved thousands of children and their families in adopting techniques for water conservation and socio-environmental sustainability. Through this program,
One of our recent outstanding volunteers is Alan Mireles (second from right), who volunteered at a Thompson Square concert in San Diego March 24. Talking with concert-goers before the show and during intermission, Alan shared photos and letters from his sponsored child, Carla Beatriz, a little girl from Brazil whom he has sponsored since 2009.
