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great programmes, including some here at the UBS Optimus Foundation, doing just that. However, they’re not enough by themselves. AND WHY NOT, YOU MIGHT ASK, WHEN THERE ARE NEARLY 70 MILLION SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN NOT ABLE TO ATTEND SCHOOL AND NEARLY 40% OF CHILDREN WORLDWIDE WHO ARE POORLY NOURISHED? And I would answer that these programmes are addressing important issues that are symptoms but not actually tackling the root causes of those symptoms. LET’S TAKE A STEP BACK TO CONSIDER Have you ever considered that there may be other factors quietly preventing a child from being able to learn, or even absorb the nutrition from the food they eat? It’s easy to overlook, but these factors may reduce the impact of your investment if children are not able or equipped to learn. One such hidden challenge is a child being infected with a parasitic worm. Not such an appealing topic, I think you’ll agree, but stay with me. Today, around 400 million school-age children worldwide are infected with parasitic worms, with fewer than 15% having access to treatment and even less having access to education about how to prevent these infections and stay healthy. Children in developing countries can pick up infections through eating unwashed food grown in soil contam-
inated by worm eggs, by playing football or cards in contaminated dirt, by walking barefoot on soil containing larvae and by drinking or bathing in water containing parasitic agents. Put simply, they are at high risk for infection simply by behaving like all kids do. WHAT HAPPENS TO THESE CHILDREN? Their physical and mental growth suffers because worms lead to under-nutrition, which in turn affects their cognitive ability and intellectual development. The worms reduce the body’s ability to capture and retain nutrients. They reduce children’s appetites, so they eat less and become more malnourished as a result. Iron-deficiency anaemia is also an issue. And research has also shown that worms can worsen the effects of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, accelerating disease progression and inhibiting the body’s ability to absorb life-saving drugs against these infections. Children who are chronically undernourished and anaemic are less able to explore the world around them and take advantage of learning opportunities. Worse, they may be too weak to attend school. The social and economic costs of worm infections are also high. Poor health, combined with low school grades, harms children’s life chances and impacts a country’s economic productivity. Indeed, studies of hookworm eradication from the American South suggest that, before public health campaigns began in the early twentieth century, hookworm was responsible for around 20% of the