Fortifying South Africa’s Children through Better Nutrition
Posted by Karie Atkinson on December 13, 2011
A nine-month-old infant lies listlessly in an iron crib with chipped paint peeling off its rails. She is in one of the children’s wards at Rahima Mossa Mother and Child Hospital, a public hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. She looks no older than 3 months.
Her face brings to life to the words of Dr. Ashraf Coovadia, a pediatrician at the hospital: “Malnutrition is a huge problem in South Africa particularly among the vast majority of South Africans who live under dire circumstances. It is a leading cause of child deaths and hospitalizations in our country.”
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In situations where local diets do not provide the essential nutrients needed to ensure optimal growth and development, particularly in the 1,000 day window, home nutrition packets enable families to improve the quality of their children’s diet by adding vitamins and minerals, and even proteins and essential fatty acids, to the foods prepared in the home.
