BundiNutrition: Aid that Works

Following the Star . . . 

This season's Christmas story brings into focus the vulnerability of becoming a baby in a marginal place of poverty. Like Jesus' family, many of our neighbors in Bundibugyo and around our East/Central Africa Area deliver babies proximate to sheltered livestock and distant from secure assistance. And then struggle to keep those children fed, healthy, growing. In 2025, their sense of isolation has increased as USAID-funded programs have been cut off. But BundiNutrition maintains a solid, faithful connection from distant compassion to those who need it. The generosity and courage of strangers, like those of the proverbial wise men, bring gifts that enable the endangered to survive.

This year, our team of Bwampu, Ivan, and Clovice pressed on without missionary presence for the first time. At the main district hospital, they found and enrolled 913 malnourished children out of the nearly 4000 they screened. In the outpatient program at Nyahuka, they enrolled 549 kids from 14 different Bundibugyo subcounties and from across the border in DRC. That's 1462 kids, over 300 more than last year, showing the pressure on our little program when other funding is cut. They also provided meals for 79 mothers in the NICU so they could nurse their babies. The full report will be prepared after the year ends, but the preliminary data is encouraging. Malnourished kids in Africa have mortality rates in treatment around 10%, but of these thousand-plus, only 2 died. Food, medicine, and attention are the gold, frankincense and myrrh of 2025. 

Would you consider a year-end gift? Our Serge BundiNutrition Page tells you how to donate. Please share this blog post to pass the good news, to augment the cheer, that it's possible to close a rough 2025 by bringing food to Jesus, a la Matthew 25.

An unlikely infant altered the course of the universe as he cried for his mother's milk in Bethlehem. We are all now part of that story, and the good news is that we too can push the arc of the ending towards good.