Just over a year ago we met Josue for the first time. Another organization asked us to visit the family due to my nutrition back ground and assess Josue as he was failing to thrive. We determined that he just was not getting enough food to eat. He then started pre school and was doing better due to the daily school snack. We became concerned that during the 3 month school break he would be nutritionally struggling. We have found that he has lost 5 pounds since school ended in the beginning of November. At 5 years old he only weighs 30 pounds.
We are now feeding him 5 days a week at our learning centre. We are also helping a few other children that we are concerned about. Josue and his family and friends chowing down on some yummy, nutritious food.
To complement their daily intake, we are adding chaya and amaranth to each plate of food.
Our garden and nutrition programs are growing and growing. Aldea Maya in recent months has been expanding our school garden programs with many different partners. We have been working with local teachers, MAGA( Ministry of Agriculture) and one of the largest companies in Guatemala, Gallo to increase food production at the Chuk Muk elementary school. MAGA informed us that our garden program is rated between 85 to 100%.
One of the first steps was to build a green house to grow tomatoes. We created a new centre garden and are already reaping the rewards with lots of fresh vegetables being produced and consumed.
