As of September 19, 2019, 2,380 children in nine different locations in the Philippines are taking Mingo Meals daily. Add 542 in three other locations who are about to start, and that totals nearly 3,000 children enrolled for a protocol of daily feeding for six months. And we hope to reach even more as support for our 10 Million Mingo Meals campaign heightens.
These children have been identified as malnourished and needing nutritional support. Some survive on one or a few pieces of root crops daily, and may go to bed hungry at night.
At times children may have kwashiorkor, a nutritional deficiency disease caused by lack of proteins. This causes a child to have edema and can mask how emaciated a child has become. The child may appear to be of normal weight or even plump, but this appearance comes from swelling due to fluid and not the presence of fat or muscle.
Other signs include a distended abdomen, an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates, thinning of hair, loss of teeth, skin depigmentation and dermatitis. While the disease can be treated by adding protein to the diet, it can have a long-term impact on a child’s physical and mental development.
