In January, February, and March of 2009, I joined Project Peanut Butter’s (PPB’s) doctors, nurses, and operational staff in Malawi to document the agency’s programs for malnourished children.
In the rural communities where PPB works, edema and “wasting,” malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, and other life-threatening health challenges are prevalent.
Each day, tragic life stories tore at my heart.
Worldwide, malnutrition is the number one cause of death for children under five years of age. Eight children die from this silent force each minute.
Fortunately, for children served at PPB’s clinics, outcomes are encouraging.
PPB’s programs transformed recovery rates from under forty percent for traditional hospital care to over ninety percent with PPB’s innovative, home-based therapy.
It’s difficult to underestimate the pain and fear caring parents experience when overwhelming poverty and uncontrollable circumstances disrupt their capacity to provide food for their own children, when young boys and girls become sick and death threatens.
Treatment and medical support are treasured.
In six weeks, I watched thousands of children move from crisis to vibrancy. Grateful parents found renewed hope. Repeatedly, PPB’s team inspired me with dedication, skills, and selflessness. My own discomfort from searing heat, lack of food and water, long, dusty rides on poorly maintained roads, exposure to illness, and restless sleep under tattered mosquito nets, faded as I became immersed in this work.
I am thankful to have witnessed these powerful moments of healing and care.
Since 2004, PPB has trained hundreds of professionals and volunteers, established dozens of clinics, built two manufacturing plants, and helped save over one hundred thousand children in Malawi and Sierra Leone. Today, PPB’s treatment can save a child’s life for $25.
Increased awareness and funding for this cause remains desperately needed. The agency’s goal is to save two million children from nutritional crisis by 2015.
