Growing Healthy Food & Healthy Children in Ghana

Seylin Blooms

Six month old Seylin Torrez Pineda was wilting just like a flower that droops without sunshine and water. After being abandoned by her mother and put up for adoption by her father, Seylin was listless, malnourished and sad when Martha Gladis Pineda adopted her in 2007.

Her new mother immediately began bringing Seylin to the CICO No. 2 feeding center in El Sector, Los Chiles where Seylin was able to begin a regime of essential vitamins added to maize (QPM) porridge. Within months Seylin was no longer wilting. According to Alexandra Montiel, feeding center worker, Seylin was beginning to bloom and grow into a beautiful, healthy and properly nourished 2 year old little girl.

“Seylin came to the center a sad little girl with no energy to play or socialize. We wondered if she even knew the language as she was not speaking like other children her age,” says Montiel. After a few months of eating and drinking our cereals and cornbread containing protein enriched QPM corn, Seylin had gained 5 pounds and had moved into a healthy weight range according to the nutritional growth chart.

By the time Seylin was 4 years old she was playing with the other children and speaking like a normal child her age. According to Seylin’s adopted mother, Seylin is now able to do so much more and is so much happier. “I am so thankful that Self Help International is helping Nicaraguan children get the nutrition they need for healthy development.”