Proper Nutrition and Education – Key to Fighting Poverty in Mumbai’s Slums
Posted on June 21st, 2011.
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Mumbai is India’s largest city with population estimates ranging between 14 and 20 million people. As many as 60 % of these people live in poverty in slums.
According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT), a slum can be defined if lacking in some or all of the following factors:
- Access to sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available to household members without being subject to extreme effort
- Access to improved sanitation, either in the form of a private toilet or a public toilet shared with a reasonable number of people
- Secure tenure (protection from evictions)
- Durability of Housing
- Sufficient living area ( no more than two people sharing a room)
The 2008 movie, Slumdog Millionaire drew attention to the lives many children lead in the slums. It was touted as the “Feel-good film of the decade”, but behind the romantic plot, it helped reveal the challenges that kids face when growing up in abject poverty. There are literally millions of children growing up in Mumbai’s slums – the odds of them breaking the cycle of poverty, slim, at best.
At Sower of Seeds, we believe it is the role of the church to respond to cries for help, sowing the seeds of God’s love compassion and salvation into the helpless, poor and needy children of the nations. There are plenty opportunities in slums to really impact the children of the nations.
In a recent article in the times of India, Mumbai was listed as the city with the highest rate of malnutrition among children in the state of Maharashtra.
On a more global scale, a study by the World Food Bank has shown that 1 in 3 of the world’s malnourished children live in one country, India – making malnutrition more prevalent here than in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute, “India is home to 42 percent of the world’s underweight children and 31 percent of its stunted children.”
The Solution
SOS has made feeding a critical part of our Destiny India Program, educating and feeding over 1,000 children between the ages of 3 and 6 in slum schools in Mumbai. Here children are fed 5 hot meals per week, often the only meal they receive.
Proper nutrition greatly increases each child’s capacity to learn and it makes a tremendous difference in the development of each child at this critical time their lives.
Each school can accommodate 50 children. Teachers have document great improvements in the children who attend Destiny India Schools.
These children will go on to public school and excel in their classes and stand an equal chance of succeeding as their peers. Children love it and parents love it. And all of this for as little as $20 per month per child. Learn more and participate at www.sowerofseeds.org/destiny.
To learn more about India’s nutrition problem:
MSF/VII Photo campaign: Starved for Attention
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