How important is proper nutrition?
UNICEF said it right, “Proper nutrition is a powerful good.” When a child is well nourished he can play and learn, he can take initiative, and his immune system can fight diseases. When a child is under-nourished his life is put on hold. Education becomes less of a priority and he has trouble focusing at school.
Today one in seven people do not get enough food to be properly nourished. The World Food Programme (WFP) defines under-nourishment as the status of people whose food intake does not include enough calories to meet minimum physiological needs for an active life. Currently 239 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are under-nourished and three-quarters of those live in rural areas, like the people Orchard: Africa serves.
As the toll of the AIDS pandemic is realized, orphans and children living with infected family members are at high risk of being under-nourished. Many children are left to fend for themselves. Orchard: Africa, from our twenty-one years of working in rural Africa, has seen the effect of AIDS on families and the struggles for parents to provide proper nutrition for their children when they are sick or unemployed. For this reason, we work to relieve the burden of one meal from the families and provide a well-balanced, nutritional meal to the orphaned and vulnerable children in the villages.
Orchard: Africa prioritizes feeding projects in every village we work in. From feeding children on a dump in Mafikeng, South Africa to feeding 200 children in each of our twenty village partnership, we have ensured that we provide an enriched and nourishing meal to as many children as possible.
The first project we implement in a new village and the first project we train pastors in is the feeding project. This project provides a regular meal to children of all ages. Orchard: Africa provides food to the pastors and a stipend for a cook. We encourage the pastor to find a volunteer from his church to make the food for the feeding project. Our goal is to provide healthy meals, which allow the children to focus in school and play.
Would you like to join us in meeting an essential need that truly makes a difference in a child’s life? You can Fund A Child by donating $10 a month. That donation will provide regular meals to three children for one month. Additionally, your donation will provide the Orphan Intervention Program to three children.
Resources
World Food Programme on Hunger