Globally, up to 400 million children suffer unnecessarily from intestinal worms, but fewer than 20 percent of at-risk children are reached with de-worming treatments. Left untreated, intestinal worms can lead to severe disability and even death. A child infected with worms is often too sick to attend school regularly or cannot concentrate well when he/she does attend school.
In 2011, Project Have Hope launched a deworming program for the 104 children we directly sponsor. Acan Christine, a nurse from Mulago Hospital, hosted a workshop with their mothers to discuss how worms can be prevented, diagnosed and treated. The children will continue to receive medicine to treat the worms at the recommended 4-month intervals.
The effects of deworming are not only medical. Regular deworming has been proven to increase school attendance by 25% and lead to an additional year of school attendance. Regular treatment as a child has been shown to increase earnings as an adult by over 20%. These children also worked 12% more hours as adults. Children who were not routinely treated for intestinal worms were 13% less likely to be literate.
Source: deworm the world