Malnourished children could be saved with locally-made peanut butter food
June 7, 2007 by Andy Merrett · Leave a Comment
A recent report by the United Nations aid agencies said that hundreds of thousands of badly malnourished children who don’t have access to hospital care could be saved with something as simple as locally-made peanut butter based food.
The appalling statistic is that around one million children die from malnutrition each year - that’s one child every thirty seconds.
Twenty million children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition.
The high-energy food, a paste-like composition of peanuts, milk, sugar and vegetable oil, costs as little as $3 per kg when produced locally. It requires no refrigeration or added water.
“When implemented on a large scale, and properly combined with hospital treatment for children with complications, community-based management of severe acute malnutrition could prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children each year,” the U.N. aid agencies said.
