Eliminate Malnutrition for 2,800 Honduran Children

Daer valued donor,

In August we completed one full year cycle of our nutrition program and the distribution of the nutritional supplement Chispuditos to families. Becuase of your generosity, we are beginning a new cycle. We took some time to visit the families participating in the program, assess their needs, and enroll them in this cycle. We are always overwhelmed at the humility and integrity of our families, the great sacrafices they make, and their unconditional gratitude.

Genaro is the father of five children, three of which are enrolled in the program. When we visited he apologized for the condion of his home. He is putting aside a little of the money he can save farming, and is slowly building a better home for his family. He asks that we continue the program for his three children because the product his children drink is making them healthier. They have been sick much less frequently.

Enermila is the mother of three children, all of whom receive the nutritional supplement. She is thrilled with the program and is overjoyed that her children will continue to get it. She thinks her children are happier and that they are sleeping better.

Both Genaro and Enermila have to walk for over an hour to and from the health clinic every three months to have their children weighed and measured and pick up the packages of Chispuditos. It is a sacrifice for them. But they are both pleased to do it. They both said they do it for love. In thanking us, they are really thanking you.

Peace,

Paul and Laura

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Report*:

The tractor trailer carrying half of this year's Chispuditos made it all the way to our Conception clinic where we store the product in large steel containers. As you can see from the picture, it couldn't make it through our gate. Last year, it couldn't make it all the way to the clinic because of the condition of the roads. We had to send out pickup trucks to carry the product the remainder of the trip. Things are indeed improving!

• 2830 children were enrolled in last year's program. 2830 children are enrolled for this year. 
• The percentage of children underweight decreased from 14% to 10.6%.
• Wasting (weight for height/length) decresaed from 4.2% to 1.8%.
• The medical charts of 958 (36%) randomly selected program participants were reviewed. In the period bewteen April 2016 and April 2017, the number of children diagnosed with Respiratory Infection decrased from 36 (3.8%) to 27 (2.8%). In the same period, the number of children diagnosed with Intestinal Infection decrased from 22 (2.3%) to 7 (0.7%).

Stunting (height by age):

• Among those who were stunted at baseline there is a 20% decrease in stunting by 6 months.
• The percent of this group underweight was over twice that of the group overall (35.4% versus 14.0%).  While the group overall only decreased underweight by 3.4%, this group decreased by 9.9%.
• This group also showed improvements in wasting, from 3.6% to 2.3%.

*You can see the entire report by clicking the attachment "Nutrition Project Findings for 2016-2017."

• Nutrition Project Findings for 2016 - 2017 (PDF)