Mums Helping Mums with Tilda and World Food Programme

I have just downloaded the free Mums Helping Mums cookbook from Tilda. Its packed full of yummy recipes from celebrity mums, bloggers and Tilda themselves. For each download Tilda will donate a meal to a mum in Bangladesh. So its a win win situation.

Here is what Tilda have to say about their Mums Helping Mums campaign:

Mums are one of the most important and special people in our lives. They witness our first steps, help us form those first few all-important words as well as nurture and feed us during our vital formative years. But, for many mothers in developing countries the simple task of providing a nutritious meal to their family is a hardship.

Lack of nutrients can lead to low birth weight, which can seriously affect a child’s physical and cognitive development, so it is essential that they receive vital nutrition early on. Through its ‘Mums Helping Mums’ campaign, Tilda has donated over 305,000 nourishing meals so far to the World Food Programme, helping thousands of mothers to give their unborn children the best start in life. This year, Tilda aims to help thousands more.

For every special pack of Tilda Pure Basmati sold,Tilda will be donating one nutrition-boosting meal to expectant mums in Bangladesh. As part of our pledge to help lend a helping hand to mums, we asked some of our favourite celebrity mums and parenting bloggers to share their favourite family recipes in aid of the World Food Programme. 

So far they have donated 130,000 meals this year thanks to people in the UK. This is the story from one mum who is being helped by the World Food Programme:

A mum’s story

For Nasima, nothing is more important than the health of the baby boy she is expecting. She lives in the village of Bambaria, in a flood prone area of northern Bangladesh with her day-labourer husband, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Home is a small bamboo hut and putting food on the table is a daily struggle.

“My first baby died during delivery last year – the journey to the hospital by boat and cart was long and I was weak,” she says. She is determined that will not happen again.

Nasima, 19, is receiving nutritional support from WFP, under its programme for pregnant and nursing mothers. Her rations are delivered to her home every fortnight – a premixed combination of cereal flour and vitamin-fortified oil.

“I mix it with clean water, as they taught us, and make this WFP food into a porridge. Even if I get a little queasy these days, I make sure that I eat this WFP food morning and evening,” she says.

“I know that this food is making my baby strong so he will get the best start when he arrives in this world,” says Nasima. “He is the first grandchild for both our families, so he is very precious.”

Expectant mothers like Nasima are also trained through the WFP programme on hygiene, breastfeeding, how to prepare foods for young children and the essentials of a balanced diet.

Nasima will continue to receive her food supplement up until her baby is six months old while he is being exclusively breast fed. She will then receive supplementary foods for her son, in the crucial weaning period.

Despite having made inroads into poverty, Bangladesh has high levels of under nutrition.

Improving maternal and child nutrition is a pillar of WFP’s work. When a mother is malnourished she is more likely to have a low birth weight baby, who in turn will be more likely to get sick, have trouble concentrating in school and may earn less in adult life. This is called intergenerational nutrition.

WFP intervenes in the crucial 1000-day window from conception to two years of age, during which time not receiving sufficient nutrients can cause irreversible damage to the brains and bodies of youngsters.