Holystic Nutrition Organization has provided food relief boxes to over thirty vulnerable children in thirteen communities in the Obuasi municipality.
The initiative, as part of the group’s mid-year food relief support program, is aimed at mitigating food insecurity and prevent malnutrition among beneficiaries.
Thirty-four vulnerable children from 28 households in Obuasi received various packages of food items, costing about 500 cedis.
Contained in each package were 5-kilogrammes of rice, a crate of eggs, a litre of vegetable cooking oil, tomato paste, beans, gari, spaghetti, mackerel, powdered milk and fortified cereal mix.
The beneficiaries of the mid-year food relief project are children who had previously been treated for acute malnutrition by the Obuasi-based non-governmental organization under its ‘Save the Malnourished Child’ (SMALCHILD) Program
Chief nutritionist at the organization, Sampson Kawuo, says the children risk relapsing into malnutrition, and a need for their nutritional demands to be safeguarded.
United Nation Chidren Fund report on Child Food Poverty reveals 1 in 4 children under 5 years of age (181 million children) experience severe child food poverty.
These children are 50 percent more likely to experience wasting – a life-threatening form of malnutrition, with irreversible negative impact on their survival, growth and brain development.
According to the World Food program, more than 60% of these 181 million children live in 20 countries globally including Ghana – where about 657,000 children under 5 are chronically malnourished.
“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.
The beneficiaries expressed how the rising food cost is affecting their ability to secure nutritious meals for their wards and praised the NGO for their timely intervention.
Akua Abi, a 65-year-old woman caring for her orphaned grandson expressed her gratitude for the support.
“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.”
Since 2017, Holystic Nutrition Organization has supported in enhancing the nutritional demands 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, and health care.
Since its inception, the organization has successfully treated over 400 children for acute malnutrition through its weekly SMALCHILD clinic and community outreaches and provision of food relief packages to thousands of children.
It strives to be a leading organization in the prevention and management of childhood malnutrition in Africa.