Lucy Liu: Give nutritious "milk and cookies" this holiday

 

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 © UNICEF/05-0676/Heger
 ETHIOPIA: A toddler who was severely malnourished drinks fortified milk at a UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding center. The child has now recovered enough to take in nutrients without the aid of a feeding tube.

For the final 12 days of 2008, UNICEF celebrity Ambassadors and supporters are posting daily blog entries about the impact UNICEF Inspired Gifts are having on children around the world.

Of the 25,000 children who die every day from preventable causes, many of those children lack the most basic nourishment needed to survive. On my recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I witnessed firsthand how something so simple could save so many lives.

It's a fact that 31 percent of DRC's children under the age of five suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition; 12 percent of babies are born with low birth weight; and only 24 percent of mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of their children's lives.

High-energy/protein biscuits (a kind of nutritious "cookies") were specially developed to help children in emergency situations and are crucial to their survival. For only $40.26 you can purchase two cartons of biscuits, full of the vitamins and micronutrients needed to improve children's health and prevent them from developing severe malnutrition, which can be deadly.

Another essential for growing and developing children is milk. In situations where mothers are unable to breastfeed, therapeutic milk provides children with the life saving nourishment they so desperately need. Right now, you can provide five supplemental units of the magic