Health facilities in rural areas lack equipment and personnel to accommodate family and children's needs. World Vision, a child-centered organization, cited food insecurity as a significant factor in malnutrition. Child-bearing women and small children are the most vulnerable to malnutrition. An estimated 192 million preschool children in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from protein or vitamin deficiencies. Without active changes to this pattern, World Vision predicts that twice as many people will be undernourished by 2010.
Malnutrition manifests itself in a number of life-threatening ways.
Although preventable, many children sicken from protein-energy malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency, low birth weight, anemia, iodine deficiency, diarrhea, and a horde of infectious childhood diseases. Beyond its most immediate and obvious health damage, malnutrition also disrupts children's quality of life by impeding their activity, growth, learning capacity, and work performance. Malnutrition threatens a country's future. Half of Africa' population about 300 million live without access to basic health care or a safe water source. Eurodad Unpotable Water Water-born infections result from unsafe water sources and inadequate sanitation.