Healthy Kitchens and Cooking for Nutrition

Thanks to all of you who have helped with this life-saving program that teaches rural families, particularly women and other food handlers, the basics regarding how to avoid transmitting pathogens to their family and children in the preparation and serving of meals.

Part of the challenge is to help women who cannot afford a better cooking and water handling area to nevertheless understand and use good health practices. With the beginning of the new year, we are happy to report that the clean kitchens initiative is progressing well, as instructors and field staff have completed their training and we will be moving forward to Phase II in February.

As supporters of this program, you may be aware, illnesses such as chronic diarrhea and stomach / intestinal parasites among children are a contributing favor in malnutrition and death of children. In the coming months, the program will be accelerated to reach all families in the food security and nutrition program which will include outreach to two communities – Chocolá and Santo Tomas La Union.

We expect that by year end, we will reach more than 250 households and that they in turn will pass what they have learned to their extended families and neighbors.

We would appreciate your support for this important educational program and note that a contribution of any amount will help us reach target families with the training and support they need to attain clean water and clean kitchens of their own and to help others learn how to do the same. Our other projects in food security and nutrition are also producing wonderful results in fighting malnutrition and we thank you deeply for your caring and for your support. 

The photos below show some of the problems associated with typical cooking areas, such as smoke which can cause eye and lung diseases, difficult to clean surfaces, and unfiltered or unsafely stored water; as well as some of the improvements that are being made.

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GLOBAL GIVING REPORT – OCTOBER 2013

HEALTHY KITCHENS AND COOKING FOR NUTRITION PROJECT SELECTED FOR IMPORTANT RESEARCH PROJECT STARTING IN 2014

Isabel Sontalle is one of the moms who had been helped to lead a better and healthier life through the support many have given to our “Fighting Malnutrition” program in Guatemala.  And Claudia has been polishing her skills in raising food for her family for the past two years.  These women, along with other participants, now have a chance to go the next step and receive training on how to avoid transmitting pathogens to their families in water and food they serve at home.

With your help, Isabel, Claudia and 200 others also have a chance to contribute the insight of their experiences to help nutrition experts learn how grass roots programs such as ours can work even better.  

Our food-raising and nutrition education program for Fighting Malnutrition has been chosen for an important three-year research study to measure how it affects the growth and development of women and their babies. The research is being done by the internationally respected Institute for Nutrition in Central American and Panama (INCAP) in cooperation with Seeds for the Future and the Nestle’s Nutrition Foundation in Switzerland.

200 women in their second trimester of pregnancy or who have a child up to 12 months of age will be asked to allow researchers to take blood and weight/growth samples each month, to keep daily food intake records and to receive training on food, diet and the importance of clean kitchen practices.  

Most families in Chocolá are far below the poverty level. Study activities will take participants away from the normal tasks of keeping a family going with very scarce resources.  It’s critical to the research that women and children stay in the program for the full 30-month data collection period.  To help and encourage them do so, we will provide a participation fee of $5 per woman (family) each month, for 30 months. 

Please consider adopting one or several women for this important training and research.  $5 a month may seem small to us, but will be very welcome in the womens’ household budgets. A one-time contribution of $150 or a monthly $5 contribution for the next 30 months will assure that a woman and her children are able to stay in the entire study, learn and transmit what they have learned to others.

The study will contribute enormously to knowledge about the efficacy of grass roots programs to fight malnutrition – what works, what does not – what women need to know, how best to teach them and how such interventions affect their babies.  With your help, we can make an important contribution to the fight against malnutrition everywhere.