In August, we launched our ‘When I grow up’ campaign. This campaign sought to give all children the chance to grow up, to live out their dreams and fulfil their potential.

Since then the UK government acted! They released a new global nutrition plan. World Vision is pleased with many of the recommendations included and looks forward to working with the UK government to put this plan into practice.

This is great news but we feel like they’re missing something out. Not just something but some people.  Millions of them.

These people live in countries and regions that are often torn apart by conflict and instability. These places are known as fragile states: these are countries in which the government cannot, or sometimes will not, provide basic security or services for the population, such as health care or education. They often suffer from high levels of violence such as civil war, or high levels of criminality, have poor basic infrastructure (like roads or electricity lines), and often suffer from much higher levels of poverty. Often they also lack the resources needed to help people to escape extreme poverty.  

It is no coincidence that the most fragile contexts, such as Somalia, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti, also have some of the highest rates of hunger, child malnutrition and child mortality in the world.^1,2,3

It is hard for us to imagine the lives of millions of children trying to grow up in fragile states. Children like Abraham, 8, (above) who lost both his parents to violence in Somalia, and then was forced to flee to Kenya once drought came. In areas where there are frequent or long term crises that decimate food stocks, it is difficult for children to receive the key foods they need to grow up healthy and strong.

Help ensure that some of the most vulnerable children don’t fall through the cracks in the government plans. Email your MP using our template message and encourage them to contact Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell so that we can ensure that fragile states are a key focus of the UK government’s nutrition agenda.

Send your email now.

^{1WFP,Interactive Hungar Map 2011 2State of the World's Children 2011 3Failed States Index 2011}