Peanuts!

The Webster’s dictionary defines a peanut as an “oily, edible seed.”

Sounds like a simple thing.

But are you aware of the power of this simple seed to affect great change? When it is mixed with a special formula provided by the inventor, Dr. Mark Manary, the peanuts become a part of a powerful weapon to fight chronic malnutrition, called “Peanut-based Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).” It is an energy-dense lipid paste very similar to commercial peanut butter, but with added vitamins according to Project Peanut Butter.
But just how big of a problem is chronic malnutrition anyway?

Frehiwot Bekele says the “United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) now calls malnutrition the ‘silent emergency,’ and they are urging massive action to stem millions of preventable deaths. Malnutrition is killing millions every year and sapping the long-term economic vitality of nations. The statistics on malnutrition are grim. Nearly 12 million children under the age of five (over 4 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa alone) die annually; malnutrition is a culprit in 55 per cent of these deaths.”

And yet after a four-year clinical, controlled study of the effectiveness of peanut-based RUTF in Malawi, 95% of the chronically malnourished children recovered versus only 25% in the traditional therapy program! As Dr. Manary says himself, “You don’t need to be a statistician to know this is different, and powerful.” And according to PhysOrg.com, “The World Health Organization officially declared Manary's RUTF the most effective method by which malnourished children should be restored to health.”

Surgance social entrepreneur Andy Milligan is one of the world’s leading experts on the components necessary and the process for producing this type of RUTF locally where it can meet immediate needs but also bring about economic benefit, since poverty lies at the root of the malnutrition problem. Andy is working with Dr. Manary and many others on the continent of Africa to make a difference. Surgance brings uncommon partners together on common ground issues (like chronic malnutrition) to transform communities and change lives.

  Just thought you would like to know.

brian AUDIA
President and CEO
Surgance, Inc.
Uncommon Partners. Common Ground. Changing Lives.
www.surgance.com <http://www.surgance.com/>
702.468.4637 cell
702.309.SURG (7874) office

Posted via email from Brian D. Audia