Child Eating Therapeutic Food

UNICEF Fights Hunger Worldwide

Worldwide, poor nutrition causes nearly half the deaths of children under age 5. Some 155 million children — about one in four — are stunted. 

UNICEF leads the way in supporting nutrition programs in 120 countries— bringing hope to children, families and communities.

  • UNICEF purchases and distributes 80 percent of the world’s supply of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), a protein-rich peanut paste used to treat children suffering from severe acute malnutrition
  • UNICEF delivers RUTF to millions of children at risk of starvation, including countries hit with unprecedented food emergencies such as Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and regions of Nigeria plagued by Boko Haram 

A health worker uses a mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) band to measure a baby's arm during a UNICEF-assisted nutritional screening in the Buramino refugee camp in Ethiopia's Somali region.

  • In the past year alone, UNICEF reached 3.4 million children around the world suffering from severe acute malnutrition (which, if untreated, results in death)
  • Since January 2017, UNICEF and partners have treated 145,988 children in Somalia (above) for severe acute malnutrition

A mother brings her 2-year-old daughter, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, to a UNICEF-supported health center in Mopti, Mali.

  • In Mali (above), still afflicted by armed conflict that began in 2012, an estimated 142,000 children under the age of five suffer from severer acute malnutrition. Last year alone, UNICEF and partners delivered RUTF to at least 107,000 children in Mali. 
  • Overall, UNICEF's programs have helped reduce the number of child deaths by 56 percent since 1990.

Changing lives. Saving lives. This is hope.

UNICEF takes proven, low-cost methods that save children’s lives and makes them available regardless of income, ethnicity or location.

When you support UNICEF, you give mothers and children hope for the future. And your money goes to help the children who need help most.

89% of every dollar UNICEF USA spends goes directly to programs that help kids survive and thrive.

 

©UNICEF