Malnutrition affects one in every four children - Save the Children

Almost half a billion children are at the verge of high risk permanent damage despite global efforts to address food insecurity and chronic childhood malnutrition.

Save the Children, a leading independent organization that creates lasting change for children in need worldwide, said malnutrition as a largely hidden crisis affects one in every four children around the world.

A press release made available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that malnutrition weakens young children's immune systems which leave them more likely of childhood diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria, according to Carolyn Miles, the President and CEO of Save the Children.

“It wreaks lifelong damage and is a major killer of children. Every hour of every day, 300 children die because of malnutrition,” she said.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that the present drought in the Sahel of Africa left children more vulnerable to extreme suffering and death.

Save the Children also made known that malnutrition underlies 2.6million child deaths every year, or one third of all child deaths.

Ms Miles said the world could no longer afford to wait until visibly emaciated children grab headlines to inspire the action these children need and deserve.

“Unfortunately, for millions of the world’s chronically malnourished children, permanent damage to their physical and intellectual development is not as obvious, and so it’s too often overlooked,” she said.

The world leaders, she noted, are searching for ways to strengthen their economies over the long term, hence she advised that through helping children get the healthy start they deserve may boost this agenda.

'Yinka Awosanya/LS

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