Have you ever felt ‘Hangry’?
That gut-gnawing sensation that hijacks your entire being. Spikes in cortisol and adrenaline transform you into an instant grump. Skip a meal, and your body yells, “Top up!”. A problem quickly remedied by a healthy snack – voila, sugar levels and sensibility restored.
But what if the food cupboard is empty, or worse, doesn’t even exist? When a meal is a dream and starvation is the norm. Protective hormone signals become destructive, if left unchecked, deadly. Malnutrition wreaks havoc on mind, body, and soul.
This was reality for three-year old Olive* and her Mom. And so begins their story of hope: Rebuilding foundations through our ECD Nutrition Project. Join us for Part One of our Three-Part ePap Series.
“Food, Glorious Food!”, Lionel Bart.
Combat Hunger: Project Hope Calls for CSI Partners
Every child has the right to basic nutrition – it is enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution (section 28(1c)). Yet malnutrition is the underlying cause of 10,000+ child deaths in Mzansi every year!
Direct Costs of Child Poverty are ~9% of SA’s GDP (NMCF Child Poverty Study)
Watch – Why so Many SA Children Are Dying of Hunger (Daily Maverick)
10 Unacceptable Facts About Hunger in SA (Union Against Hunger)
- Enter, You.
- Be intentional with Your Company’s Corporate Social Investment.
- Combat hunger-poverty.
- Sponsor a child.
A sound financial choice for businesses with a stake in the future of SA’s economy. Partner with Project Hope: a PBO/NPC that issues 18A tax certificates.
Although the government’s ECD focus is moving in the right direction, bureaucracy is ponderous. Private ECD programmes provide real-time solutions to hunger injustice. By simply providing a reliable square meal. And that is what we do: Holistic and Sustainable ECD Support for vulnerable children in the Valley of 1000 Hills, KwaZulu-Natal.
How ePap Anchors Our Holistic ECD Support
Introducing ePap – more than a bowl of gruel – a balanced formula to address hunger at its core: Giving our charges a healthy start to their day: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Made in Gauteng, a local solution to SA’s systemic nutrition poverty.
Networking secured a six-month supply of ePap for Siyamudumisa Daycare. Thanks to Shelley Godsell of Knysna’s Children’s Feeding Project for the sage advice and nourishing breakfast supplies.
Now we need ongoing support, so that we can adopt ePap as our standard daily meal for the 70+ precious souls in our care. Connect with Sara Brown and join our collaborative effort to thwart multidimensional childhood poverty at a community level. Ask us how your business can fund holistic ECD support.
Invest in Foundation Phase Nutrition – Give Olive a Chance
In an instant, Olive’s Mom was torn from her home, tertiary education, and a promising future for her beautiful child. Abused and cast out onto the streets. Motherly instinct kept them alive, despite the odds, and eventually they landed in a crisis centre.
Olive spent Christmas in the hospital, her three-year-old immune system shut down from the traumatic effects of poverty, violence, and instability. Driven by love, her Mom, determined to find a sustainable solution to their situation, reached out to Project Hope. The duo arrived with only the clothes on their back and a broken cell phone.
Whilst Olive is not grossly underweight, her body shows systemic signs of malnutrition: yellowing hair, patches of baldness, lethargy, and a complete disinterest in the world around her. A visit to the doctor further diagnosed eczema, scabies, intestinal worms, ear infection, severe chest infection, and mental trauma.
Warning: The following pictures are disturbing to witness. (Parental permission granted prior to publication). Click on the images to view:
- Olive’s baseline weigh-in.
- Olive’s skin: eczema & scabies.
- Olive’s tears flow with trauma.
Be the positive twist in Olive’s Dickensian tale. The benefactor that makes a sustainable difference. Invest in ECD foundation phase nutrition.
Join Our Child Food Security Initiative
For as little as R300 a month, your CSI provides Olive with comprehensive support:
- preschool fees and supplies
- clean water, two meals, and a healthy snack every school day
- padkos for evenings, weekends, and school holidays
- medical care and additional resources as needed
Olive needs an adult portion (50 grams) of ePap daily for a month to help her recover from the physical sequelae of an inadequate diet. Follow Olive and her Mom’s story of transformation. We will revisit this duo mid-year, in part three of our ePap series.
NO CHILD SHOULD EVER SAY, “Ngiyafa yindlala!”.
Contact our team to find out how you can help.
Thank you for taking the time to read Olive’s story.
From the Project Hope Family with Love.
*Olive – pseudonym used for safety reasons
Glossary:
CSI – Corporate Social Investment
NMCF Child Poverty Study – Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in Partnership with Deloitte Africa
ePap – nutrient-dense porridge developed to combat ‘hidden hunger’ caused by malnutrition
padkos – Afrikaans word meaning food for the road (pad = road; kos = food)
eczema – non-contagious, dry, itchy skin caused by a compromised skin immune barrier
scabies – highly contagious skin infection caused by Sarcoptes scabie mite
Zulu – English
Ngiyafa yindlala – I am starving (Ngiyafa = I’m dying; yindlala = it’s hunger)