Say It Like Beckham
August 02, 2012
With worldwide attention on the Olympics, soccer star David Beckham hopes that the Games will help him score interest in an international problem: child stunting. In his capacity as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Beckham called for an end to this "silent" poverty crisis so that children could be the real "winners of the Games."
What is stunting? It's when a child's height is low for his or her age. When a child's growth is stunted that's an indicator of chronic deprivation such as malnutrition which negatively impacts development. Child stunting can also signal impaired brain function.
While stunting is something few lay people know about, UNICEF hopes to make it a global priority. When Americans learn about stunting, they may naturally assume the phenomenon is limited to developing nations, that it doesn't come homegrown.
Is there child stunting here in the U.S.? Absolutely.
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