Meet the Superkids of Laos

Chandavone and her daughter Namkhing

Chandavone (25) Homchanh (20) and Chanhom (28) have one thing in common. They are the mothers of three buoyant 13 month-old children from the small village of Ban Namahee in the south east of Laos. Lively and healthy, the children wrestle in their mother’s arms, mouthing eager pre-speech noises and taking any opportunity they can get to try out legs which only months ago seemed unimportant to their world. In a country where child under-nutrition is a silent emergency – the latest data indicates almost 2 million Lao citizens, mainly women and children, suffer some form of under-nutrition – these three bouncing, healthy children, are in stark relief to the figures. Why? All three have been taking the nutrition supplement Superkid as part of their diets.

Creating Lao 'Superkids'

A mother feeds her child food with Superkid
 (c) UNICEF/Fitzgerald
 

A mining company, UNICEF and 4 million sachets of powder called Super Kid – see the link there? No, perhaps not the most obvious. But today marks a very special day with a new product launch in the southern city of Savannakhet, Laos that will keep Lao children healthier and happier, and that’s all down to a very special partnership.

The initiative aims to dramatically reduce aneamia and other nutrition issues affecting young children in three of Laos’s southern provinces by providing a powder full of vitamins and minerals to sprinkle over food.