In the sweltering heat of the dry season, mothers clutch their babies as they walk to the malnutrition clinic. At home their infants’ cries had grown faint, too weak to protest the hunger that grips their tiny bodies. On the lips of many mothers is the prayer, “Hold on. You’re going to make it,” murmured again and again.

The clinic is filled with the cries and whimpers of babies. It’s a heartbreaking sound, but nurses understand the sounds of suffering and diligently meet with mothers and exam their children. These clinic nurses see the signs of malnutrition every day – sunken cheeks, swollen bellies, vacant eyes. They speak not only to the babies, but to the mothers, “We will do our best. Stay strong.”