World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Maria Antonia Ambrogio (28 years old) and her children Francisco (15 months old) and Sonia (5 years old) are beneficiaries of the “Nourishing El Salvador” Project in Gualococti, Morazán. The project carries out interventions in health, eating habits and nutrition in the country’s municipalities with chronic undernutrition rate at 29% or above. In this photo stand (l-r): Rudy (12), Noel (11), Melvin (8), Sonia and Maria Antonia who is holding Francisco. 

Deniess Chavez, WFP Programme Monitor, and Juan Francisco Sanchez of the INTERVIDA NGO, ask Maria Antonia about the use of the Super Cereal, a fortified mix of corn and soy blend that helps five year olds and younger children improve their nutritional status.

Maria Antonia has five children and an average weekly income of US$10. The food rations she receives through the Nourishing El Salvador Project helps her family make ends meet and contribute greatly to their food security.

The WFP and partners implement Nourishing El Salvador in the municipalities with high and very high prevalence of chronic under nutrition among children 5 years old and younger, pregnant and lactating women

According to WFP’s Hunger Map (2011) the Gualococti municipality, in the department of Morazán --where Maria Antonia and her five children live—reports a chronic undernutrition rate of 29% among children under 5 years old. This photo shows the interior of Maria Antonia’s living quarters and the single bed where she sleeps with her children.

Melvin, 8 years old, goes to the Gualococti school every day where he and his siblings eat a hot meal.

Five-year-old Sonia is a beneficiary of the Nourishing El Salvador Project. She was born with low weight and the lack of nutritious food undermined her health in her first years of life. Fortunately, the project's implementation and her mother’s care allowed her to recover her health and nutrition. Now she has the energy to play and study.

Melvin eats a lemon as a snack after having played with his brothers in his home at the Caserio El Volcan in Gualococti. Melvin and his older brother help their mother to collect the leaves of banana trees and other fruits so she can sell them in town and make some money.

Life has not been easy for the Ambrogio family. However, Maria Antonia has found relief through the Nourishing El Salvador Project: Her 15-month-old baby is better nourished and does not get sick frequently as he used to. Meanwhile Sonia (5 years old) is not undernourished and her other children eat a hot meal in school.

Monitors of the Nourishing El Salvador Project must walk long distances, cross mountainous terrain and rivers in order to reach the homes of beneficiaries. In this photo, WFP staff Deniess Chavez, and NGO partner INTERVIDA Juan Francisco Sanchez walk up a hill on their way to the Caserio El Volcan where Maria Antonia and her children live.