Covid-19 has had a colossal impact on worldwide hunger. Increased food prices, loss of jobs and lack of access to nutritious food now means that millions of people do not have enough to eat. Experts predict that we’re on the brink of the worst hunger crisis in 50 years, which could potentially claim the lives of an additional 10,000 children a month due to increased malnutrition rates.

We can’t allow this to happen.

Your support could help provide therapeutic food for malnourished children, food vouchers to feed a family, or give people the means to set up their own garden so they can access nutritious food during this hunger crisis.

If we don’t act now, there is the potential that more people will die from hunger due to the pandemic than the disease itself. Will you help save lives?

In South Sudan, millions of children are suffering from malnutrition due to conflict, food insecurity, disease, and now, the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abuk is 18 months old and is looked after by her 65-year-old grandmother, Arek. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Abuk’s grandmother collected firewood to sell at local markets, using the income to feed Abuk and the rest of the family. She also worked on farms for some extra money. However, Covid-19 caused this work to dry up. This meant that Arek no longer had the means to feed Abuk or her family. And, with rapidly rising food prices, this was devastating. Forced to feed on wild fruits and beg from family members, life suddenly became very hard.

Already struggling, things worsened when Abuk developed a fever and diarrhoea in June this year. She began losing weight and was taken to a nearby health facility. There, Abuk was diagnosed as malnourished and immediately admitted to one of our therapeutic feeding programmes.

It was the first time that any child in Arek’s family had been diagnosed as malnourished.

Thanks to Concern programmes like these, Abuk is now improving. However, there are still worries and uncertainties that lie ahead for Arek and her family as the Covid-19 situation remains unpredictable. That’s why now, more than ever, we need your support.

Providing these services to malnourished children is a lifeline, particularly during a pandemic that is exacerbating hunger.

Can you help us tackle the Covid-19 hunger crisis and save children’s lives?

• In early September in West Kodofan, Sudan, we screened 2,687 children for malnutrition and admitted 340 onto feeding programmes to help them recover and regain their strength.
• In Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan, we reached 3,277 people with food distributions so that they had enough to eat.
• We’re aiming to provide 8,000 households in Oicha, the Democratic republic of Congo with cash transfers to help them see through this crisis and buy the food they need.