Meet Benjie. He is 11 years old.

 

Benjie, like many other children in his village, is stunted. Stunting is a primary manifestation of undernutrition. Studies have shown that children stunted at age 2 will have higher risk of poor cognitive and educational achievement with limited income and employment opportunities in the future.

 

#MingoMeals are now on their way to Benjie and children like him in three remote areas (Midsalip, Labangan and Lakewood) of Zamboanga del Sur. But because stunted children may never regain the height lost and will never gain the corresponding body weight, the most we can do at the moment for Benjie and 479 others like him in these three sites would be to calm the stirrings of hungry stomachs to insure that they don’t miss school because they are too hungry to walk.

 

They may never meet Benjie and his peers but providing 480 of them with Mingo Meals daily for six months (and a double dose for those with greater need) is made possible by employees of Balsam Hill, an e-commerce company whose founder we met five years ago. As they have done before, USA-based Balsam staff conducted bake sales, silent auctions and other creative ways of fundraising, with their employer matching what they raised. Thank you, Balsam USA (Redwood, California and Boise, Idaho offices) for the loving support!

 

#10MillionMingoMeals

 

VIEW FACEBOOK POST