The situation of girls hurts everyone in Bangladesh. Half of the babies born in Bangladesh are underweight at birth because of the malnutrition of their mothers. This is even worse than the situation in Africa. Even though we think of Africa as being very poor, only 15 percent of African babies are born underweight. Many more Bangladeshi girls than boys are severely malnourished, and this continues through the teenage years when girls need extra nutrition for their development.
Many teenage girls marry and have babies before they are ready.
Even when they are pregnant they get no extra food, and they must continue their strenuous work. So the baby is born malnourished, and the cycle starts again. This is sad because it is so unnecessary People have been trying to find out why there is so much more malnutrition in Bangladesh compared to Africa and other parts of the world. My trip to Bangladesh taught me a lot about the world and about how people live. I met little girls who have to work every day to survive.