15,000 children die each day from hunger. Malnutrition affects the education of children and their future income. It is said that “hunger is a violation of human dignity.”
To help solve the hunger crisis, we must first asses where the hunger and malnutrition exists. Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Solutions has developed an app called Child Growth Monitor. This app uses an infrared sensor to gather 3D measurement of a child’s height, volume and weight ratio, as well as head and upper arm circumference. This data can then be stored in the cloud and accessed anywhere. It gathers the information quicker and more accurately than with scales which can be hard to get to the remote places of the world and lack accuracy due to calibration.
A non-profit organization, Welthungerhilfe, has piloted this app in India with 12 teams fanning out to scan 10,000 children under age 5. Many children were suffering from “wasting”. Wasting is a malnutrition condition that causes muscle and fat to wither. Early treatment is vital to reduce the mortality rate. With severe protein deficiencies, children struggled to follow simple lessons. When children were provided with vitamin-rich provisions like peanut butter paste, their ability to concentrate improved greatly.
Child Growth Monitor app has provided hope to efficiently diagnose the hunger and malnutrition in the world to then effectively provide solutions to conquer this epidemic. To read the full article regarding this study, click here.