Being aware of the crises in Pakistan and China and doing what we can help ourselves with donations, the Foundation wishes to draw attention to an unsung tragedy in the Sudan.
However, the research of our students highlights the critical importance of the young women, pregnant and breast feeding mothers. It is not just any food that is needed but food that contains the nutrients specifically needed by the mother to secure her health and that of her unborn child.
Josette Shaaron, the Executive Director of the World Food Program, in her opening remarks to the Executive Board in June re-iterated our mission as follows
“We know now that if children under two do not receive sufficient nutrition they will be sentenced to a lifetime of mental and physical limitations. We now have what I call the burden of knowledge and WFP is looking for ways to ensure we prioritize those under twos, the most vulnerable of all in the world, during emergencies.
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp221014.pdf
No mother deliberately malnourishes her child, and malnourishment of the under 2 means malnourishment of the mother which certainly will have stunted brain development irreversibly. So children grow up unable to hold attention at school; unable to learn properly, often with chronic ill health all of which leads to a high rate of mortality, and for those that survive an inability to invent, be creative or hold a job. The net effect is the cementing of poverty. Our Sudanese students desperately need support to find the best ways to provide for safe maternal nutrition and health. This is the surest way to solve poverty.
