Fill me up with some soy milk!!

"Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me." Matthew 18:2-5

This child is suffering from severe Protein-Energy Malnutrition (Kwashiorkor). Our team encountered him while conducting training in his village last week, a village where more than 300 children died in January 2015 of malnutrition after subsisting on a diet of cassava flour and water. Kwashiorkor was a local word in Ghana that means "the sickness the baby gets when the new baby comes", meaning this is what happens when they loose their mother's milk as a primary staple.

That is why we are so committed in enriching the local weaning foods of straight maize, or cassava, with Soy, for the protein and introducing other fruits and vegetables for micro-nutrients.

Call it what you want, it's still sudza!

This was a sobering reality, getting to visit a shanty community directly across the road from the hotel where we are staying in Zimbabwe. They could not have been more warm, in part because Steven and Dr. Gil have visited a few times already.  

Today we got to be there while this young pregnant mom was making the family breakfast, granulated corn starch (SUDZA) with a little added sugar and peanut butter. Three cheers for the peanut butter, but I think folks would likely get about a 1/4 teaspoon per serving... not enough for adequate protein for anyone, much less a pregnant woman.