Improve nutrition of 150 children in Cusco

Dear friends.

We inform you the activities that we have developed the last months on the project "Improve nutrition of 150 children in Cusco":

TRAINING WORKSHOPS AND BALANCED FOOD DEMONSTRATION SESSIONS

The child malnutrition often starts from the pregnancy of the mother.

CEDNA through the health project Miski Wawa, is concerned with providing training for mothers with children under 6 years on issues of balanced diet (quantity and frequency), nutrition and prevention of diseases such as anemia and others.

For the development of the nutrition workshops, the health personnel performed demonstration sessions where the mothers learned how to prepare healthy dishes, making a proper combination of food and helping in this way to improve the nutrition of their children. 

PRESENTATION OF THE NUTRITIONAL DIAGNOSIS IN MEETING SPACES

The health personnel of the Project, in coordination with the PRONOEI (Initial Program Educate No Education) and the leaders of the project area, made the presentation of children’s nutritional diagnostics in order to let parents know where their children are in this diagnostic and to help them begin to make good decisions to help improve their children’s nutrition, who in some cases face a chronical malnutrition.

We conducted a training workshop on balanced diet and we gave mothers a cookbook of healthy preparations as well as a poster containing information on proper hand washing so that we can help improve hygiene habits of each family.

INTRADOMICILIARY TRACKING IN FOOD ISSUES AND ADVICE ON HEALTHY HOMES

The staff project performed the visits from house to house and verified that mothers were putting into practice the things that they had learned in the workshops of balanced diet, the staff also evaluated how these mothers prepared the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) . Finally, the staff also helped the mothers with improving some things on which they needed help to provide better food for their children.

We also conducted the healthy housing counseling where the staff project evaluated the cleanliness of the housing; then with the family we made a list of things that they needed to improve so the family can improve this cleanliness inside their homes.

For this activity we used a tracking sheet, where we qualify: Cleaning of housing, distribution environments, location of small animals, kitchen hygiene, cleaning utensils, balanced diet, hygiene of food (fruits and vegetables) , safe water consumption, form and timing of hand washing, personal hygiene and implementation of corner shower, bathroom cleaning and trash selection.

PROGRESS OF THE IMPROVEMENT AND RECOVERY OF THE NUTRITIONAL SATATUS OF THE CHILDREN

We conducted the third control weight and height of children of the health project, where 53% of 139 children are in a normal nutritional status. The result is the following: 12% of the population has improved their nutritional status in relation to the first inspection after the start of the project.

IDENTIFICATION AND SELECTION OF MOTHERS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO START-UP A BUSINESS

CEDNA trains the enterprising mothers in business management with the objective to improve or to start-up their own business.

Among the business ideas, 35% of the mothers are willing to open a grocery shop, 25% want to start an animal husbandry (with guinea pigs and chickens) and 40% want to start-up another kind of business.

13 mothers already set up their business such as pastry shops and pottery. In order to encourage their initiatives, those mothers were given some materials that contribute to the development and the improvement of their ideas. We designed for them business cards and we offered them examples of existing budgeted business models and bookkeeping documents models (sales’ recording, purchases and expenses).

All of this has been elaborated with the aim to improve the quality of life of those enterprising women and thus also improve the nutrition of their children.

IMPLEMENTATION OF BIOGARDEN WITH RECYCLED MATERIAL

The consumption of harvested aliments from bio-gardens helps people to have a balanced diet.

Through its Miski Wawa project, CEDNA contributes to the development of those initiatives by offering mothers varied kinds of seeds so that they can grow a bio-garden.

Some difficulties exist concerning the implementation of bio-gardens in the intervention areas. One of those is the lack of water and the other one is the little place available in the families’ homes. This is the reason why the initiative was taken to implement in some homes bio-gardens with recycled materials (bottles, buckets and unused plastic basins), which helps to optimize the place and to make possible the implementation of vertical bio-gardens.

The lack of water can be harmful to the harvest, which is why we prioritize the distribution of seeds during the rainy season. As a matter of consequence, this doesn’t affect the availability of water among the families.

This project was very welcomed among the populations, leading to a distribution of seeds to 80% of the beneficiary population.

NUTRITIONAL RECIPE CONTEST

In september, CEDNA organized a nutritional recipe contest with the promoting mothers of the “Satelite” and “Paraiso de Fatima” communities. There, they could show the plates they had prepared, which were rich in vitamins and other healthy aliments such as quinua, chuño, liver, corn and other food products.

The judges were chosen among the personal of the health center responsible for the nutritional area. Some awards were offered to the mothers who demonstrated their ability to be innovative and creative in their way of cooking.

The prepared meals were tested by the children who were there and more specifically by the beneficiary children of CEDNA’s project. Thanks to this contest, mothers that were not part of it could also learn about the various plates and thus to vary their own ones.

If you like to have more information about our activities of CEDNA please see our attachment: newsletter August - September 2014.

Regards.

CARMEN SILVA

• Newsletter August - September 2014 (PDF)