Child Nutrition Project
In rural
areas of El Salvador, 25% of children younger than 5 years old suffer from
chronic malnutrition. This is a problem that carries significant and often
irreversible consequences, and contributes to lifelong illnesses and mortality
rates. Children that suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life
have limited growth, diminished mental capacity, memory loss, poor muscle
development, decreased height and weight, and an increased risk of contracting
infectious diseases. In young adults, malnutrition causes diminished muscle
growth, decreased height and weight, decreases in mental capacity, and a major
risk of contracting chronic medical diseases in their adult years.
Pastoral de
la Salud is attempting to address this problem by ensuring that at risk
populations are educated in nutrition, thus improving their diets. The targeted
populations for this project are children under five years of age, pregnant
women, and infants in rural areas of La Libertad, as the risks of malnutrition
are greatest within these groups. To improve nutrition in this population, this
project will provide education to the beneficiary families on food and
nutrition in order to implement healthy practices, monitor the height and
weight of children younger than five years old, and implement 10 family gardens.
Malnutrition
is a huge problem in impoverished populations, and in areas of El Salvador
where rates of diseases like Dengue fever are high, it is directly connected to
mortality rates. This project hopes to address this both directly, through the implementation
of 10 family gardens and education that will spread through these communities
and have long-term effects. The heights and weights of young children will also
be monitored so that these problems can be caught and hopefully addressed early
by rural clinics. The results we hope to see are a baseline of nutritional
education at community level, families with both greater access to nutritious
foods and better habits surrounding nutrition and feeding their children, and
in the long-term better growth and development in children younger than five
years of age.
Anything
you can do helps – a $15 donation can educate and feed a community health
worker who will in turn return to their community and help families learn how
to better enable their children to develop and grow to their full potential.
-Pastoral de la Salud and Globemed at Amherst
College
