Where and for what are we raising money?

We are going to raise funds for a malnutrition prevention project in Cao Bang that will target malnourished and at-risk children under 5 as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Support will be provided in the form of growth monitoring, supplementary feeding (nutrition sprinkles, biscuits, and milk), and education for parents about childhood nutrition and health.

Cao Bang is highly mountainous province in the far north of Vietnam. The communities ChildFund works with are mostly very remote and people live traditional lifestyles as subsistence farmers. ChildFund New Zealand started working in Cao Bang in 2010 and is focusing our support on malnutrition prevention, livelihoods, water, healthcare, and education.

A recent (April 2011) needs assessment in Cao Bang province found that at many as 1 in 5 children are malnourished.  Children and their families suffer primarily from a lack of food – crops are not yielding enough to feed families. Children and families must therefore live through 3-4 months of hunger each year, relying on family charity, scraping together what they can fine, and begging alms from neighbours.

Even during the months when food is available, children suffer from a poorly balanced diet. The staple diet of the rural poor consists primarily of ground corn, supplemented with rice, pumpkin leaves, and occasionally meat. This insufficient diet is partly due to lack of food variety and partly due to lack of awareness by the parents of what makes a healthy diet.

In the communities where ChildFund work in Cao Bang most parents have had no access to formal education and have limited knowledge to pass on to children.


You can keep a child healthy and strong with a generous donation!!