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Famine3 min read

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The one thing worse than starving to death?

Kelsey Campbell
Apr 23, 2019

“I feel like committing suicide because I’m worthless.”

Laura Grace, a South Sudanese refugee, barely gets out the words before tears slide down her cheeks.

Weak, sick, and tired herself, she hasn’t been able to adequately feed her son in weeks. There are no jobs for refugees like her, and the monthly rations she receives last only two weeks.

“My child is malnourished,” Laura Grace says. “The food is not enough.”

The anguish and guilt are overwhelming for mothers who can’t provide food for their children and it’s not unusual for depression to set in. Helplessly watching their son or daughter slowly waste away fills moms with dread and can drive their thoughts to the very darkest of places.

A mother like Laura Grace needs you. She needs your help to feed her child. And for only $40, you can provide enough food for her child for an entire year.

That’s an entire year that a mother doesn’t have to be consumed with fear that her child will die from starvation — a cause of death that’s easily preventable.

Even if parents don’t lose their children to extreme hunger, they often have to watch as the long-term lack of nutrients causes lasting damage that will affect their kids for the rest of their lives.

Infants and toddlers who suffer from malnutrition can experience microcephaly, a literal “shrinking of the brain” that has no cure.

When the body goes into a state of ketosis, or starvation, it begins to eat through whatever sugars, fats, and other tissue it can find. This means that, in essence, the body is cannibalizing itself without access to food. In the end, the brain and the heart suffer the most damage.

Starvation ends up causing physical stunting and intellectual delays. The permanent brain damage can lead to seizures or even prevent a child from learning to walk and talk normally.

But the food you provide will prevent a child from experiencing these health problems … and prevent parents from having to watch their son or daughter suffer.

When you give $40 to feed one child for a year, you can even help save a life.

Parents like Laura Grace would do anything to provide for their children. In impoverished Guatemala, mothers and fathers scour through the local dump to find scraps of leftover food to eat or recyclables they can sell to buy a little bread.

In Mosul, Iraq, parents have even boiled down cardboard to feed their children in an effort to ease their aching stomachs. Imagine the anxiety and worry of parents who have no other option but to give their child trash to eat … knowing it’s only a temporary fix for the pain.

You can end a parent’s worry.  

You can rescue a child from hunger.

You can feel one boy or girl for an entire year — all it takes is $40.

Please give today. Mothers like Laura Grace can’t save their children without your help.

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