Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Awards HKI $200,000 to Combat Child Malnutrition in Africa

New York, NY March 3, 2007 –The San-Francisco-based Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund has pledged $200,000 to Helen Keller International to help combat child malnutrition in Africa through an innovative treatment strategy.  The grant is part of a total $1.25 million commitment by the Goldman Fund that will be also be given to four other internationally-recognized organizations, including Action Against Hunger, CARE, Concern Worldwide US, and Doctors Without Borders. The five organizations are fighting malnutrition through the use of Plumpy’nut, a nutrient-fortified peanut butter and milk-based paste, and other RUTFs (ready-to-use therapeutic foods). 

Unlike traditional malnutrition treatments of enriched milk that require mixture with clean water, refrigeration and strict feeding schedules in a hospital setting, Plumpy’nut is a ready-to-use formula that requires no refrigeration, water dilution, or specialized administration, and has a shelf life of two years.  Developed in 1999 by French scientist André Briend, the treatment has been used to save children's lives in major nutrition emergencies in Darfur, Malawi and Niger.

Mothers, once required to walk miles to a therapeutic feeding center, are now able to pick up weekly rations of Plumpy’nut to take care of children at home, freeing up hospital clinicians’ time to treat patients requiring more complex attention.  Acutely-malnourished children can gain one to two pounds a week eating the Plumpy’nut supplement. 

Each year, almost six million children worldwide die from complications resulting from hunger and severe malnutrition; nearly half of children under five in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition. The grant will support HKI's long-standing work in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, three countries with populations vulnerable to malnutrition. HKI's programs aim to not only treat but also prevent malnutrition.

“As a foundation we have the ability to fund initiatives we believe can help change the world, leaving it a better place than when we found it,” said Richard N. Goldman, founder of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.  “Our goal for this donation is to call attention to the hunger epidemic plaguing the children of Africa and encourage additional support of innovative means of ending malnutrition throughout the world.”

Boy in Niger eating Plumpy'nut