Rebeca Sosof, the Maternal Child Health Program Assistant, teaches the beneficiary mother about nutritional needs and benefits.
One by one, with children in hand, mothers stepped into the Pueblo a Pueblo office in Santiago Atitlan to attend the monthly workshop. Our Maternal Child Health Project aims to provide support to mothers and their children during their most vulnerable periods of pregnancy and early childhood, until five years old. This support includes pre- and post- natal care, making health services more accessible. Mothers also learn a lot from our monthly educational workshops on topics like women’s empowerment; reproductive rights; and, this month’s topic, the importance of proper nutrition for their family’s well-being.
The mothers made rice patties, beet salad and beet lemonade.
This is an especially important topic for mothers who live in the Department of Solola, where 66% of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition.* Chronic malnutrition during childhood can not only lead to infant mortality, but the effects are seen over the long term -- effects like stunting, delay of cognitive development, and poor school performance.
Vilma Mendoza Sosof, Manager of the Maternal Child Health Project at Pueblo a Pueblo, says that malnutrition is one of the biggest health issues; it stems from a lot of factors. One of the biggest reasons is “lack of economic resources” Vilma said. “But it’s also a lack of knowledge on what proper nutrition is and how to take advantage of foods to get the most benefit from them,” she explained. The nutrition workshop focused on some of these factors by using local ingredients to make low-cost rice patties with a beet salad -- which were rich in calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C -- and beet lemonade, which was delicious and which the kids were able to help make!
Vilma Mendoza Sosof, Manager of the Maternal Child Health Project at Pueblo a Pueblo, says that malnutrition is one of the biggest health issues; it stems from a lot of factors. One of the biggest reasons is “lack of economic resources” Vilma said. “But it’s also a lack of knowledge on what proper nutrition is and how to take advantage of foods to get the most benefit from them,” she explained. The nutrition workshop focused on some of these factors by using local ingredients to make low-cost rice patties with a beet salad -- which were rich in calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C -- and beet lemonade, which was delicious and which the kids were able to help make!
The children involved in the program helped make delicious beet lemonade!
We hope that the beneficiary mothers use the skills and information from the workshops, feel empowered to improve their family's health through nutrition and form healthy eating habits for their families. Vilma says that “by using local and common ingredients we want to show that eating healthy doesn’t require fancy ingredients or complicated cooking instructions, it’s easy to turn your leftovers into a new and nutritious meal that the kids will enjoy.”
*Guatemala National Institute of Statistics (2017)
*Guatemala National Institute of Statistics (2017)
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