This infant is originally from a town called Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa in the department of Escuintla, Guatemala. His mother is 19 years old and dropped out of school after 8^th grade because her father no longer wanted to help her pay for her education. She left home because she decided to start a family with a young man from Colombia. The relationship was going really well until the father of the infant started hitting the mother every day. She got tired of being beaten every day so she took her baby and left her husband.

The mother did not eat well while she was pregnant with this little baby and was beaten by her husband which caused him to be born prematurely with anemia and delayed development. She did not have support of her father because he did not want her back in the house and her mother passed away from uterine cancer. After a year they detected that the mother suffered from mild malnutrition and the baby suffered from severe malnutrition so the mother took her baby to the health center in Escuintla where she was referred to Casa Jackson Nutritional Center.

Currently this infant is progressing in his treatment. His weight has improved a great deal and he now has his level of malnourishment is now moderate. Every day his health is improving and so is his mother’s because she also receives food every day.

His mother is thankful for the support of Casa Jackson Nutritional Center and everyone that donates to the project to help support families and children in need.  

Story of Madeline

Rosa , originally from the department of Escuintla is 28 years old and been dealing with the difficulty of raising her two children, 14 year old Rosa and Madeline who is 1 year and 9 months old. Rosa was never able to receive education due to the lack of economic resources in her family growing up. Partlyduetolack of education, Rosa becamepregnant at theage of 14. Because of her pregnancy, Rosa’s parents disowned her and threw her out of their home without leaving her any resources. Rosa then went to live with the father of her child, Rene.

After living together for a time and despite the economic difficulties that they faced as a couple, Rosa became pregnant with Madelin. During this time, their family lived on Rene´s salary. Rene was working every day as a fisherman. He did not make much, but what he did make was enough to feed his family. One day in late 2012, Rene got ready to go to work and said goodbye to his family, not knowing it would be the last time he would see his wife and daughter. That day, Rene did not realize that his fishing boat was in poor conditions, and as he was working alone on his boat, the motor had mechanical problems and he remained stranded in the ocean, with no one around to help him. No one is sure exactly what happened, but Rene drowned that day.

Because of this terrible loss, Rosa was unable to deal with her grief and became depressed, lost interest in taking care of the child she was pregnant with, stopped eating or taking vitamins. When Madelin was born, she weighed only 5 pounds, and was breast-fed for the first 6 months of her life, and would not drink any other type of formula. Not knowing what to do, Rosa returned home to her parents who decided to open their home to her again.

Rosa did not realize how sick Madelin had become and that she had become malnourished, but when she became sick with diarrhea and came down with pneumonia, at which time Rosa decided to take her to the local health center. When she saw that Madelin’s systems persisted, Rosa took Madelin to the National Hospital of Escuintla, where they diagnosed her with pneumonia and severe malnutrition.

Once Madelin was discharged from the hospital, her mother thought she could take Madelin home. However, the hospital social worker referred Madelin to Casa Jackson Nutrition Center with a court order for nutritional rehabilitation.

At intake at Casa Jackson, Madelin was in a very delicate state, very unanimated, she made hardly any movements. She was unable to sit up, much less stand up, and she did not tolerate our formulas or baby food. She continued this way for 3 months.

After this time, Madelin was injected with three shots to improve her immune system, and this together with the nutrition that she was receiving finally started to show results. Shortly after, Madeline began to crawl and walk, and engage in activities appropriate for her age. Her mother received support through donations of food and clothes for herself and her other daughter. Right now, Madelin has reached a stable weight and a better diagnostic appearance than when she was admitted to Casa Jackson.

Despite the difficulties that Rosa faced, she never gave up taking care of her daughter in Casa Jackson and she hopes to return to her home and find work again in the fishing industry and continue to see her smiling daughter which gives her hope to live each new day and hope of a better quality of life.