Chispitas

My mother is newly retired and since she is home now and able to watch "daytime television" she finds out all sorts of cool things. This morning she called to tell me about a new program through UNICEF called Project Sprinkles.

Jenna Bush Hager and a group of young professionals (UNICEF's "Next Generation" group) are committed to working to reduce the number of preventable child deaths around the world. It is estimated that nearly 1/2 of all child deaths are the result of chronic malnutrition.

But there is a simple solution found in a food fortification product called "Sprinkles" or "Chispitas" in Spanish. The powered, nutritional supplement provides the iron, vitamins, folic acid and Zinc required for healthy physical and cognitive development in children ages 6 months to 5 years. Jenna Bush and Next Gen have concentrated their efforts in Guatemala, the Latin American country with the highest rate of malnutrition. In some indigenous communities in Guatemala as many as 80% of children are suffering due to poverty and rising costs of food.

Since its launch in July 2009 Next Gen has raised $175,000 through fundraising and donations for Sprinkles in Guatemala (click to donate). The funds will be used to purchase Sprinkles for 35,000 children over the course of a year and to support staff, training and monitoring of Sprinkles distribution and effectiveness.

The cost of a year's supply of life-saving "Sprinkles" for a child is about $3.50. Seriously? I can skip one Starbucks latte to make sure a child gets all the vitamins she needs for a YEAR? Sign me up.

I made a donation today. How about you?