20 years of fighting hunger

This is Kindiaba. She’s a community health worker and she’s using a Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) band to check if Samakoun is growing properly. 

She’s smiling because Samakoun has made a full recovery from wasting, the most severe form of malnutrition. That’s thanks to Kindiaba for spotting the signs before it was too late, helped along by support from the innocent foundation.  

Because innocent drinks donates some of its profits to the innocent foundation, we can support ambitious non-profits who share our dream of a world where no one goes hungry.

Did you know that the innocent foundation has a coordinated strategy to improve diagnosis and treatment for children with wasting? We do, and it’s going really well. Over the last 10 years, we’ve worked with organisations improving care for hungry children every step of the way. We’ve supported Concern to study how mid-upper arm screening could improve early testing and prevent kids from getting malnourished. We’ve worked with Washington University to understand how moderate malnutrition could be treated before it becomes severe. We supported the International Food Policy Research Institute to study how to prevent relapses into malnutrition for children who’ve recovered. And we’ve worked with the Alliance for International Medical Action to figure out how all of this could be managed more simply and smoothly 

We’ve made sure to run these studies to a high standard, so we can be certain the kids we’re supporting are better off. ALIMA published their findings in the Lancet which is no small feat.  

We understand we won’t solve hunger overnight, so we’re taking a long-term approach. For instance, we’ve supported Action Against Hunger for a decade to understand if community health workers like Kindiaba can improve the outlook for hungry children. Together we’ve found that instead of travelling miles while sick to the nearest medical centre, trained community health workers can effectively provide testing and treatment for the sickest children at home.  

We tested this approach with Action Against Hunger in Mali 10 years ago with 4,000 kids. Soon, community health workers across the country were supporting kids nearer to their homes. And this year, the World Health Organisation made community health workers a ‘globally recommended practice’. That means they’re officially recognised as an effective way to help malnourished children.  

But we’re not stopping there. The global impacts of Covid-19 and its aftermath have meant more kids are facing serious hunger. We’re daunted, but we’re committed to our dream of a world where no one goes hungry. We’ll be announcing the next stage of our strategy soon, with a commitment to laser-focussing on childhood nutrition, using what we’ve learned, and doubling down on our goal to support the big, brave ideas that will make a real change. 

We’re so grateful for the hard work of everyone at innocent drinks who make all this possible, and to our partners working tirelessly to end all forms of malnutrition. 

To celebrate the innocent foundation’s 20th birthday, we’re looking back at all the stories—big and small—that add up to our great big dream of a world without hunger.  

For the last ten years, we’ve championed some great ideas to help kids experiencing serious hunger, and every one counts. Follow the link for more on our #EveryOneCounts campaign, www.innocentfoundation.org/every-one-counts