Fight Rising Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

Dear friends,

I am just back from a great trip to Guatemala where, together with our nutrition staff and pediatricians, we made the rounds on 5 communities which are enrolled in the Plumpydoz project, funded by you all!

In all communities, we were very pleased with the progress that the children are making. Most children and mothers really enjoy using the Plumpydoz product, and we are seeing some early encouraging results in each location. For example, mothers report that their children have better appetites and are getting sick less often. Additionally, we saw many cases where the Plumpydoz is already making a big difference for children in terms of their growth. We expect that, as time goes on, these effects will become more and more pronounced.

Also, in each community, we took the time to visit with several very ill children. As you can probably imagine, whenever we start a nutrition program in a new community, we always find at least a few children who have previously undiagnosed illnesses other than malnutrition, such as congenital heart disease, seizures, etc. Since there really is no primary care for children in Guatemala, often visits with our doctors are the first these children have had. As part of our community based nutrition work, however, we at Wuqu' Kawoq also commit to treating any other medical condition we find in the children that we serve.

Thanks once again for all of your support and generosity in this project, and stay tuned for more updates! As always, email me at peter@wuqukawoq.org with any questions or concerns.

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