Egg For A Cause

1. Egg For A Cause A Volunteering Initiative aimed at Eradicating Malnutrition among Vulnerable Children in India.

2. What is Malnutrition & Undernutrition? Malnutrition is poor nutrition because of an insufficient OR poorly balanced diet or faulty digestion or utilization of foods. Undernutrition is also poor nutrition but only because of INSUFFICIENT DIET.   ** Malnutrition affects almost 42.5 % children below the age of 5 years . - PranabMuherjee, President of India (Nov 19, 2012 , New Delhi). ** Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. -United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF). ** One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. - UNICEF ** Under-nutrition is the underlying cause for about 50% of the 2.1 million Under-5 deaths in India each year.  - UNICEF

3. Consequences • Early death. • Greater risk of diseases. • Impedes motor, sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development. • Children more likely to grow into malnourished adults.

4. Preventing under-nutrition has emerged as one of the most critical challenges to India’s development planners in recent times. 

5. Egg For A Cause Is a volunteer driven initiative with a mission to eradicate malnutrition among Indian children through people’s participation.

6. Why Egg? “It is true that malnourished children need a healthy nourishment to take care of deficiencies of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Looking at the cost structure of various food stuff, egg fits into a food which is easily available, cheap, easy to make and consume having many nutritive values which majority of malnourished children can have except of course if they are strict vegetarians or having ‘Egg Protein Allergy’ in which case other rich foods like groundnut /rajgira & jaggeryladdoos or chikkis and banana.” Dr.AvinashRao MD, DCH. Honorary Pediatrician, RN Cooper MG Hospital, JVPD ,Vile Parle, Mumbai. Honorary Pediatrician, BSES MG Hospital, Andheri, Mumbai.

7. What Volunteers have to do ? Before JGW:  • Volunteer/s can do a recce to identify a locality close to their home/workplace etc. where there are children on the streets (with or without families.) /NGOs can also be identified. • Get an approximate number of children that might be there. (Can collect this information during the recce.)  • If volunteer/s don’t know how to boil eggs or identify spoilt eggs then read up this information from internet. - Know if these children eat eggs.(Less likely that children would be vegetarian but if they do then carry some Rajgira/groundnut and jiggery laddooorchikki and Banana.)

8. What Volunteers have to do ? • During JGW: Volunteer/s have to boils eggs (one egg per child, basic check of eggs before boiling to make sure the eggs are not spoilt.)  • Distributes these eggs among the street children in the identified locality. • Do not peel the egg before hand, let children remove egg shells. • Collect the egg shells in a disposable bag, to be disposed later. • Volunteers to make sure that the children eats the egg in their presence to make sure that the egg is not taken away from the younger children by older children or by their parents or others. • Also should carry extra eggs than estimated and some fruits in case some more children join in. • Volunteers to take this opportunity to interact with children/families. (It will help build sensitivity towards people living on the streets and their challenges. Can also talk about benefits of egg.)

9. What Volunteers have to do ? • The volunteer can inform these children if they will be back the next day or that it is the last day. And return to their respective routines. • Share about the event (No. of children reached out, locality of the event, experience of volunteering) on eggforacause@gmail.com. • Volunteers can choose to undertake this task for a day or the entire week or even continue for a few day in a week for the rest of the year.

10. Let’s volunteer towards giving India a healthier generation!