First, we’d like to thank you for your support of this project. After losing everything in the Queja landslide, these children with resulting serious malnutrition needed help. If their nutrition did not improve, they risked death. Your prayers and financial support have been a great outpouring of life and love to these families!
We started out the project with a 6-month timeframe, but after working with the children and families, we saw that a year was needed to bring improvement to their health.
There are many factors involved in taking a child out of malnutrition, which required more time.
Some of these factors are:
- Family’s educational level – Twenty of them are unable to read or write.
- Socio-economic status – They are subsistence farmers with little income that is also not reliable
- Health of the child – Intestinal parasites are endemic; the malnutrition makes the child vulnerable to pneumonia and other illnesses
To overcome these challenges, in addition to monthly nutritional supplements, the parents need education. This education has to be practical and in their own mother tongue. The topics taught by Conzuelo are:
- Family planning methods
- Family administration
- Personal and home hygiene
- Common illnesses and how to prevent them
- Stories and principles from the Bible
This education is helping to improve the lives of not just the malnourished child, but of the whole family.
Home visits were made to ensure that families are putting this education into practice. The majority have been maintaining a clean house and properly preparing the formula for their children with filtered water. When one home was encountered not clean and organized, it was an opportunity to do one-on-one education with this mother.
It is crucial that the children stay in good health. An intestinal infection or pneumonia seriously sets them back in their growth. This is why we carry out regular health checks and treatment of infections as they arise. They are so important! This struggle to survive has caused some children to make slower progress in overcoming malnutrition.
We have seen many successes though. Ten children who had normal weight, but below normal length, maintained their weight. Four children went from severely to moderately underweight. Twenty-four children who were moderately underweight now have a healthy, normal weight.
In terms of length, fourteen children went from being severely to moderately stunted in growth. Eighteen children who had severely or moderately stunted growth are at now at a normal length. We celebrate these gains!
We want you to meet one of these children whose life is being saved. This is Diana, who is currently almost two years old. She at first wasn’t gaining weight. She was getting sick a lot with diarrhea and colds.
She was one of the children where we saw the need to do start doing individual health consults. Through doing this, treating her illnesses, and educating her mother on prevention of these illnesses, Diana hasn’t been sick and has gained weight. Her mother has latched onto the importance of her involvement in caring for Diana and the cleanliness of her home. Diana has gained 6.16 lbs. so far and is now in the normal weight range! She is still considered moderately stunted in her length, but has gained 7cm. Within these next three months, we hope to see her continue to grow.
If you’d like to help Diana keep growing through June and July, you can support her here: https://donorsee.com/project/13155
This complete package of supplemental nutrition, weight/ length monitoring, education, and health checkups/treatment is working for many children! Besides looking at the numbers, we see that the children are healthier, feel better, and are more joy-filled. The mothers comment that their kids so enjoy drinking their formula and fortified drinks. There is definitely no struggle to get them to drink it!
The mothers are very appreciative of this support. They are very grateful for the education and health monitoring as well, which equips them to take care of their children now, and is a tool for them when we are no longer running this project. You can imagine how frightening it would be to see your child sick and not thriving. Our Post Disaster Nutrition Proyect relieves their fears and gives them hope. We thank you for being a part of this! Please keep the mothers and children in your prayers as we work with them until the end of July.
We look forward to seeing how God uses these children in the future.