Nurse me: let's defeat child malnutrition in Benin

Dear friends,

Last May, our Director, along with five Aleimar volunteers, traveled to Benin for our periodic monitoring trip. This opportunity allowed us to visit all our active projects in the country and, especially, to meet our local partner and the children we support. As we mentioned in our last report, the volunteers arrived in Cotonou. During the first days of the trip, they had the chance to visit the “L’Abbraccio” Newborn Hospital in Sokponta, with which Aleimar has been collaborating for years. Over these years of joint work, we have supported the hospital in creating a new neonatology department, which has now become a reference point for the entire region.

The volunteers met the community facilitator and the hospital staff. They visited the hospital, specifically the neonatology department, where baby weight screenings were conducted, and additional information on education was provided.

From May to October, the doctors and the community facilitator at L'Abbraccio Hospital kept us updated on the screenings conducted and the children's data. They also regularly informed us about their efforts in nutrition education within the hospital. This issue continues to be addressed, and child screenings are ongoing thanks to your contributions.

Aleimar and L'Abbraccio Hospital aim to reach the most vulnerable children beyond the hospital, in the field. That’s why Aleimar supports a crucial monitoring activity that the hospital staff conducts in the villages: the monthly screenings of all children living in the most rural areas near Sokponta. Aleimar volunteers have participated in periodic visits to Kpossegan village, where they weighed many children, collected health data, and the local staff referred the most serious cases of malnutrition to L’Abbraccio Hospital.

The recent monitoring trip provided tangible evidence that the work in the neonatology department is progressing well, as seen in the pictures.

Aleimar is committed to ensuring the sustainability of this project and to preventing and addressing child malnutrition in these rural areas. To this end, we aim to focus more on the screening activities that L’Abbraccio Hospital carries out in the villages. Furthermore, the arrival of an Italian project manager from Aleimar in Benin will improve the logistics of these activities, this will allow a constant monitoring of our projects on the ground.

Dear friends, if you would like to continue supporting Aleimar in Benin and the children in the communities we serve, we are pleased to share our GlobalGiving project focused on food security: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nurse-me/.

We want to express our sincere gratitude for all your help!