By Susan Giddings, Lonny Ward | Operations Specialist, Operations Director
CHOICE Humanitarian has been working with the local governments and health departments to reduce levels of anemia and malnutrition among the people of La Arena, Peru by providing sustainable education, training, and resources. While developing genuine bonds of trust with the communities, the CHOICE team in Peru worked to determine the levels of anemia and malnutrition among children and mothers. From there, the team conducted trainings in healthy eating practices, childcare, food preparation, agriculture, chicken raising,entrepreneurship, and leadership.CHOICE then worked in collaboration with family groups to install 1,500 family gardens.The sandy and unfertile land came to life with more than 90,000 kilos of organic vegetables including lettuce, cilantro, spinach, beets, cabbage, and radishes.
Miryam, a young 23-year-old mother, is from the town of Loma Negra, La Arena. From the very beginning,Miryam was excited to participate in this project. She recognized the impact it would have on her two young children under the age of five.
“I was asked to be in charge of supporting the technical team—monitoring certain activities within the project—and I immediately accepted. The idea of being able to work for the well-being of our children filled me with emotion and enthusiasm, as we don’t normally get this kind of support,” Miryam said.
Part of her responsibilities included supervising the production of the family gardens as well as the chicken farms. In addition, Miryam learned how to prepare healthy food to improve nutrition for her children. Later, she was able to instruct other women in the community about good food practices, hygiene, and childcare. This community leadership role for Miryam not only empowered her to develop new skills, but her example also inspired other women to provide more effectively for their children. Miryam expressed deep gratitude for the opportunity to be involved in benefiting her community.
Recently, as part of the development of the project to fight anemia and malnutrition, training days were held in the province of Morropon, La Arena. The training days were held for 15 women leaders from the seven communities involved in the project.The nutritionists on the CHOICE Humanitarian team were responsible for presenting the discussion topics including general responsibilities of the community agent, assessments of nutritional status, diseases caused by malnutrition, and healthy eating. In addition, the trainings offered the participants the opportunity to become certified as community health agents, who would then share this knowledge in their communities.
As of April of 2023, rates of anemia in this area had dropped from 31% to 1% for children ages 0 to 11 years! CHOICE has plans to install another 500 family gardens and to certify 15 community agents with the specific tasks of doing follow-upresearch and evaluation on anemia in the communities.
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