http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/mothers/2008/SOWM-2008-full-report.pdf
I passed the 3 month point at my site take II, and recently completed my community diagnostic which is the process which we use to get a feel for potential projects we can do in the community according to need. I did this through formal surveys with mothers who for the most part had children less than 5 years old since they are our main health program focus and also through use of some diagnostic tools and informal interviews.
Some of the most frustrating findings:
50% of women are still giving birth in their houses though we are only 30 minutes from Chota where there is a semidecent hospital. Half of these women are giving birth with the help of a local woman (or sometimes man) who is designated as the towns 'partera,' but who often has no training on what to do if anything goes wrong during the birth or any of the warning signs that might come up. We have a woman working in our health post who is a certified 'obstetriz' with whom I'm trying to coordinate meetings with these parteras to teach them about the signals that mean the women needs to get to the hospital stat.
82% of the women I surveyed do not have an improved cooking stove or 'cocina mejorada' and so the majority are cooking on the floor of their houses usually in the '3 stone' way....basically a few stones on the floor of usually dirt with wood thrown in to heat the pots. This is a huge problem since there are a ton of respiratory infections that reoccur over and over because the smoke stays in the room and also causes eye infections etc. Improved cooking stoves are relatively cheap to construct and involve a tube so that the smoke leaves the house, and there is a more efficient use of the wood. This is likely going to be what I'll be focusing on funding wise for a project.
55% of moms couldn't give me an example of a type of food they can give their children to combat malnutrition. Part of the reason for this is very likely lack of familiarity with the concept of malnutrition and association of what foods can help with it. So before realizing a larger project of cocinas, it will be important to do activities with the mothers to help teach what local foods they can give to their children and themselves to prevent malnutrition. 91% of the moms had never heard of iron or its importance in helping with Anemia which is a huge problem in my site.
Instead of just talking about the concept of iron though I just decided I'd make it a goal to have the mothers learn one simple thing they can do to help with their anemia situation which is planting spinach. Spinach has lots of iron and so I'm encouraging it, most recently by prepping land in the health post to plant some there so people ask questions. Problem is if there isnt the costumbre of consuming spinach, theres no point just saying its good so later I'll be cooking with the moms trying to integrate it into their meals to make it palatable and perhaps even tasty. I personally pretty much hate spinach, but I guess I'll have to change that like I've had to do with beans and lentils. Amazing what you can start to like when rice is just white, 3 times a day.
So this post isn't to be depressing with sad little statistics but just rather to say that I'm honing down what I want to work in, primarily a healthy homes project with a group of about 30 moms where we cover nutrition, hygiene, rehydration, vaccinations, etc with the end goal being the installation of a cocina mejorada in their homes (with the prerequisite that they assist all the meetings we hold). So I'll keep you posted as I may be starting the grant app process for this stuff soon.
con carino!
Proof that hard work can be done in a skirt...
Volunteers who came to help prep the soil as part of our monthly 'dia del campo' where we visit each others sites and help with a small project..
Our regional coordinator, Jose, who is also an agricultural engineer and I presenting to the moms on the importance of iron..
Me being a babysnatcher...
Mom from Utchuclachulit with her 4 month old..
My health post...
Mothers waiting for the monthly government distribution of cooking oil and 'papilla' which is a mix they give the children to drink to try supplement their diets...sometimes sucessfully, but not really since its reliant on government distribution.
