A baby who was severely malnourished in rural Gujarat because her parents needed advice on nutrition has been saved after charity Action Against Hunger stepped in to help.
Mum Krishna, 28, was deeply concerned that her baby had lost weight but the local Action Against Hunger team spotted that her child, aged just one and a half, was severely malnourished.
It became clear to the team that mum needed guidance on how to feed her baby sufficiently nutritious meals – levels of education about nutrition in remote parts of Gujarat are low, where many people also live below the poverty line.
The family simply did not know where to turn for help as they had no money to pay for healthcare in the remote tribal village near Poshina in Gujarat.
Once Action Against Hunger’s local project coordinator met mum Krishna and Dad Mahesh, they were able to provide treatment to nourish the baby back to health and advice on feeding.
This was just one of the many stories of transformation that the team from KellyDeli, which owns international sushi franchise Sushi Daily, heard, when they visited Gujurat with their charity partner Action Against Hunger, to see the difference their fundraising efforts have made.
Action Against Hunger works with Project Vruddhi in Gurjarat, to reach remote families in inaccessible rural areas of the region.
So far through fundraising products such as Forgotten Ends and Veggie Goodness, where a donation is made to the charity with each sale, Sushi Daily customers have helped raise nearly £400,000 and save the lives of more than 10,000 malnourished children.
KellyDeli’s corporate responsibility manager Celine Ricord said: “The trip enabled us to better understand the many challenges faced by Project Vruddhi such as floods and cultural beliefs, and their determination to reach and support remote families all around Gujarat.
“The Project Vruddhi team select and train local ‘block coordinators’ – originally from the tribal communities they are responsible for – so they speak the dialect and understand the cultural barriers to change.
“We were able to hear from young mums, who did not know who to turn to when their children were ill because of severe malnutrition and how the team saved their children’s lives and regularly checked on them to provide useful advice on breastfeeding or weaning. Their work is absolutely amazing, thanks to this programme, more children’s lives will be saved.”
The team heard how Krishna takes care of her four children, her extended family and farms cotton to make a living.
They grow fruit and vegetables in a kitchen garden and they also buy vegetables at the market when they need to, but when they do not have the money, they eat bread with chillies or hot water with chutney. The Action Against Hunger team even found Krishna was anaemic when they stepped in to help.
Krishna’s youngest child was diagnosed with severely acute malnutrition and referred to the nearest malnutrition centre by the Action Against Hunger coordination team.
She has now received nutrition advice from the charity, as she continues to care for her four children. Mum and baby now make regular visits to the malnutrition centre, where the baby’s health is improving steadily.
Executive director of Action Against Hunger UK Jean-Michel Grand said: “Around the world, 2.3 million children under the age of five die every year because they don’t have the food they need to keep them healthy.
“In just six weeks, Action Against Hunger is able to get a malnourished child back on the path to recovery and educate families on nutrition and good hygiene practices to ensure their children stay healthy.”
Vinay Iyer, Chief Executive of Action Against Hunger in India added: “It was wonderful to host Sushi Daily to show them the positive impact their fundraising has on families who have experienced life-threatening hunger. Sushi Daily’s commitment to tackling hunger through the
Project Vruddhi is invaluable to so many lives; we can’t wait for the partnership to continue to blossom.”
According to Action Against Hunger, Gujarat has persistent pockets of high rates of undernutrition, with 38.5 per cent of children under six years old estimated to be stunted and 9.5 per cent severely wasted. Anaemia among women is a significant public health challenge at 55 per cent.
During the trip to several states in the region, including Sabarkantha and Bhavnagar, Sushi Daily delegates met local Action Against Hunger officials and healthcare professionals, representatives from Project Vruddhi, and mothers and children who are benefiting from the projects
Sushi Daily, which has a long-held commitment to combating food waste, hunger and climate change, partnered with the international humanitarian organisation in October 2020 to help fight child malnutrition. It also pledged to support United Nations Sustainability Goal 2: Zero Hunger.
Annabel Brimacombe, Marketing Manager at KellyDeli, who developed Forgotten Ends, said: “I’ll never forget meeting Krishna. Despite dealing with hardships such as seeing her child malnourished, she was so warm and positive while she took care of her family. It was humbling to meet a strong woman surviving in a tough environment and embodying life’s most important values. I’m so glad that Sushi Daily has been able to support a project that is making a real difference to the health and welfare of families facing hunger-related challenges.”
Sushi Daily employees have also been embracing the charity partnership, raising funds by running the London Marathon and many other events.
The Global Network Against Food Crises, founded by the UN World Food Programme and the European Commission shows levels of hunger worldwide are at a record high.
The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises indicates close to 193 million people are acutely food insecure and in need of urgent assistance across 53 countries and territories.
This represents an increase of nearly 40 million people compared to the previous high reached in 2020.
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