Holystic Nutrition Organization Provides Mid-Year Food Relief for Vulnerable Children in Obuasi
Holystic Nutrition Organization has provided food relief boxes to vulnerable children in Obuasi, as part of its mid-year food relief support project.
The initiative aimed at mitigating food insecurity and to prevent malnutrition among the beneficiaries – 34 vulnerable children from 28 households covering 13 communities within Obuasi.
The beneficiaries of the mid-year food relief project are children who had previously been treated for acute malnutrition by the Obuasi based NGO, under its SMALCHILD (Save the Malnourished Child) Program.
According to the Organization’s chief nutritionist, Sampson Kawuo, the children are at a very high risk of relapsing into malnutrition and therefore their nutrition must be safeguarded. Each food relief box costing about GHC 500 contained: 5kg rice, a create of eggs, a liter of vegetable oil, tomato paste, beans, gari, spaghetti, mackerel, milk powder and fortified cereal mix (TomVita X & Tombrown).
According to the UNICEF’s first Report on Child Food Poverty, 1 in 4 children under 5 years of age (181 million children) experience severe child food poverty, making them up to 50 percent more likely to experience wasting – a life-threatening form of malnutrition, with irreversible negative impact on their survival, growth and brain development.
Sadly, 65% of these 181 million children live in just 20 countries including Ghana – where about 657,000 children under 5 are chronically malnourished according to the World Food program.
“With the ongoing economic challenges and associated food inflation, it is very critical to protect the vulnerable, especially children, from food insecurity and malnutrition, which will push their households further down the poverty line” – David Ameyaw, Founder of Holystic Nutrition Organization said. “That is why we have provided this food relief”, he added.
Expressing her gratitude for the support, Madam Akua Abi, a 65-year-old woman caring for her orphaned grandson said: “This food relief box means a lot to me because sometimes I have nothing to feed this boy since I am economically unproductive.
In such situations I become afraid that he will go back to that bad situation again – relapsing to severe acute malnutrition. But the frequent timely intervention and support of this NGO has kept this boy alive and well.” Other beneficiaries also expressed how the rising food cost is affecting their ability to secure nutritious food for their children and praised the NGO for their timely support.
Since 2017, Holystic Nutrition Organization has supported the nutrition of over 12,000 children across the Obuasi East and West districts. The mission of the NGO is to secure GDP for every child – an equal opportunity to Grow physically, Develop cognitively and Prosper economically – by ensuring equitable access to food, nutrition, & health care. Since inception, the Organization has successfully treated over 400 children for acute malnutrition via its weekly SMALCHILD clinic and community outreaches and provided food relief to thousands. It strives to be a leading organization in the prevention and management of childhood malnutrition in Africa.
