Another day has dawned in Kinshasa, the bustling capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to nine or more million people. This morning Gracia Beya’s grandmother will take Gracia to the feeding center at Lokoro Presbyterian Church. Gracia is suffering from acute malnutrition. At 12 years of age she is just over three feet tall and weighs only 18 pounds. At Lokoro she will receive two nutritionally balanced meals today and her grandmother will be given enough food to prepare a third meal for when they return home.
In Kinshasa, approximately 46 percent of the children under five years of age suffer from chronic malnutrition and 14 percent suffer from acute malnutrition. The reasons for this high rate are varied, complex, and exacerbated by Congo’s dismal economic situation and years of war. Gracia is fortunate: she is one of 5,000 children who receive food every day through the twelve feeding centers managed by the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK).
These feeding centers would not exist were it not for a $12,000 grant from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance that enabled the CPK to repair warehouses for storing food and to train |
