In a remote village of West Midnapore, torrential monsoon rains washed Parul and her family’s hut away. She is 7 months pregnant and together with her two malnourished children she narrowly escapes the floods as they take cover under plastic on the district road.

Days later acute diarrhea set in causing severe dehydration and malnutrition. Just in time health workers from the IIMC project arrived with life saving packets containing ORS (oral rehydration solution) and ND (nutrition diet). When the packets were administered to the family their health quickly improved; after 7 days the children gained a substantial amount of weight and Parul’s pregnancy was out of danger.

We have deemed these aid packets ‘magical boxes’ as they are an effective in the fast treatment of acute dehydration and malnutrition. The ORS solution contains a mix of simple salts and sugar in clean water while the ND contains a simple mixture of carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals, the essential ingredients to basic nutrition. Both of these components in the ‘magic boxes’ cost little in their preparation and can be prepared from local ingredients.

We, IIMC, want to avoid the senseless tragedy of death due to malnutrition, therefore we want to make these ‘magic boxes’ available to every Indian mother and child. Our goal is to distribute monthly over 5000 boxes to families and to have extra boxes in reserve in the need of a calamity.  With the generous support of our donators we can realize our goal and help save thousands of lives.