Agriculture Improves Incomes in Central America

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Chelsey McNiel

Heifer’s President and CEO Pierre Ferrari celebrates with project participants during a Passing on the Gift® ceremony in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Heifer is working with communities in Honduras and Guatemala to create livestock and agriculture businesses, which help residents overcome poverty and malnutrition. Pierre Ferrari, Heifer’s President and CEO, visited these projects in March 2013 and attended a Passing on the Gift® (POG) ceremony in Guatemala. There, project participants gave him a goat to symbolize their gift to Heifer to pass on to communities around the world.

Learn how you can help pass on the gift

Hope for Children

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Pierre Ferrari

As we approach June and the celebration of International Children’s Day in many countries around the world, I started to think of my own family. Tonight I will celebrate my stepdaughter’s graduation from middle school. She’s done so well, and we are so proud. I also thought even farther back about when my children were born and how when I held them in my arms for the first time, a million thoughts raced through my mind. I was fortunate to not ever worry about how I would feed them or where we would live or how I would support them. Unfortunately this is not the case for many families around the world. That is the sad truth.

Children are the most vulnerable among us, this is true from the newborn to the adolescent. Children depend on others to provide for their needs. But in so many of the countries where we work, they are vulnerable to malnutrition, which in turn, lowers their ability to fight diseases such as malaria and gastrointestinal infections and eventually can cause death to their poor, weary bodies. But malnutrition for these children starts even earlier than we imagine. Children who are not well nourished in the first 1,000 days of their existence, including the time in their mother’s womb, are susceptible to cognitive impairment. But how is a mother supposed to care for her unborn child if she herself does not have access to healthy and nutritional food, doctors, or even clean water? According to the World Health Organization, 25,000 children (under the age of 5) die EVERY DAY, one third of those deaths resulting from malnutrition and 70 percent due to preventable or treatable conditions, given access to simple, affordable interventions. That is such a gruesome reality. Picture a stadium for your favorite sports team and fill the seats with children. All those beautiful faces lost. This is NOT OKAY.

And the children that do survive, they have another battle to fight. I again think of my stepdaughter. It is normal – expected – that she will graduate from middle school, high school and college. In other parts of the world, many parents cannot afford to send their children to school; and when they can attend, the education is inconsistent, especially for girls. It’s so important for these children to have the opportunity to go to school because without education, these children will never overcome the cycle of poverty.

: Photograph by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

This DOES NOT have to be the reality. All of Heifer’s work centers on families and communities so that resources, food, cash, assets training are available to end this tragedy as rapidly as possible. When I was last in Kenya, I met an incredible man named Laban. Laban was working with Heifer. Laban was determined to create a new life for the orphans suffering from AIDS in his community. With his hard work, and the support of the community, 32 children were given the opportunity to go to school. 32! There is the proof that it does take a village to raise children. And if he can help in his own community, certainly we can help too.

So as we honor Children’s Day this year, let’s remember the children all over the world, because they are our responsibility too.

In Context: Malnutrition in India

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Falguni Vyas

Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Photo courtesy of Babasteve, Creative Commons

Maltnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the world, one child in every three that is malnourished lives in India.
47% of Indian children under the age of five are moderately or severely malnourished

Last week’s post helped us to understand malnutrition on a large-scale. Today, we’re looking at malnutrition as it relates to India and its children.

There are an estimated 146 million children living in India. Of those children,

57% of children are deficient in Vitamin A, increasing blindness and death among the preschool population
70% of children are anemic
There has been a 13% increase in iodine deficiency, decreasing learning capacity. Less than 50% of all Indian households use iodized salt

About 61 million Indian children have stunted growth and they account for 34% of the world’s under age 5 population. In these instances, malnutrition is inherited.

1/3 of Indian women are underweight and receiving inadequate nutrition. Consequently, when these women are pregnant, they give birth to low birthweight babies– in fact, nearly 30% of newborns in India are underweight. This makes them more susceptible to disease and further malnutrition. The most crippling effects of malnutrition occur during pregnancy and in the first two years of a child’s life. After two years, the damage done is irreversible, making pre-natal care and newborn nutrition critically important.

Photo courtesy of CIDSE, Creative Commons

Despite recent rapid growth in India (the GDP has more than doubled since the early 1990s), the malnutrition rate has only decreased slightly. One of India’s Millenium Development Goals was to halve malnutrition by 2015. However, economic, environmental and social disparities make that goal difficult to achieve.

Children under five in rural areas are more likely to be underweight than those living in urban centers
Low-caste children have less to eat than high-caste children
Women are expected to eat less than men and usually wait to eat until after the men have finished dining

Children from wealthier families suffer from malnutrition not because they don’t have enough to eat, but because they’re not being fed correctly. In this case, the solution is to not make more food available but to educate parents on how to feed their children well-balanced, healthy diets.

For further reading, check out this recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald that tells the story of a rural Indian family and the effects of malnutrition on their children.

In Context: Malnutrition 101

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Falguni Vyas

According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition affects one in three people worldwide and each of its forms kills more people globally than any other disease. It affects all age groups, but is especially common among the poor and those with inadequate access to health education, clean water and proper sanitation.

These are the facts:

Over 925 million people go to bed hungry every night
Every 6 seconds a child dies from malnutrition and related causes
Chronic food deficit affects 20% of the population in developing countries
More than 70% of children with protein-energy malnutrition live in Asia, 26% live in Africa, and 4% in Latin America and the Caribbean

Malnutrition, which exists even when hunger isn’t present, is when you lack the nutrients that your body needs to develop and grow. The two don’t always go hand in hand. There are instances where there is plenty to eat but one is still malnourished because the food that’s available or being consumed is not providing the body with the right nutrients it needs to be healthy and function. Clinically, malnutrition is characterized by inadequate or excess intake of protein, energy and micronutrients such as vitamins, and the frequent infections and disorders that result.

People who suffer from malnutrition are more likely to get sick and, in severe cases, often die from it. The percentage of deaths caused by malnutrition is unmatched by any other infectious disease since the Black Death.

One is considered malnourished if:

They are unable to completely utilize the food they eat due to an illness. This is called secondary malnutrition. Food is not the answer to curing secondary malnutrition as illnesses like frequent diarrhea prevents your body from absorbing nutrients

Diet does not provide adequate calories and protein to grow and maintain the body, known as under nutrition or protein-energy malnutrition. It’s harder to recover from illness or disease in this case as your body needs more protein to recover than is normal. Protein-energy malnutrition contributes to half of all under-five deaths every year in developing countries

And, just to be clear, malnutrition means “bad” nutrition not “not enough” nutrition. Overnutrition is a form of malnutrition where too many calories are consumed. This is when the body is overloaded with nutrients and cannot process them effectively, resulting in obesity or vitamin poisoning

Effects of malnutrition:

Marasmus, which is the wasting of fat, muscle and other tissues

Cretinism and irreversible brain damage due to iodine deficiency, also causes mental retardation, delayed development and blindness in severe cases

Blindness and increased risk of infection and death from vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency is the biggest cause of preventable blindness in the developing world. Children in developing countries who have a severe vitamin A deficiency as a result of malnutrition have a greater chance of getting sick or of dying from infections such as diarrhea and measles.

Anemia, caused by iron deficiency, is estimated to affect more than 2 billion people worldwide. Iron deficiency can cause a person to be less active and less able to concentrate. Students who are malnourished often have trouble keeping up in school.

Here’s a handy infographic from www.alltop.com that describes what happens when you have too much or too little of something:

Oh, and one last (not so) little fact? The world produces enough food to feed everyone in it.

Hunger and malnutrition can be stopped. You can pitch in today by visiting the Heifer Gift Catalog. To learn more on how Heifer works to end hunger, click here.

Who’s Hungry?

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Austin Bailey

As if the estimate that 1 billion people in the world are hungry wasn’t hard enough to fathom, a new survey developed by researchers in the United States, Colombia and Brazil suggests the number could actually be twice that.

The new survey, which requires people to report on their food consumption over a period of three months, is a departure from the facts and figures-based method the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization used to come up with the 1 billion figure. The FAO made their estimate by comparing how much food is available, divided by the population. If the number of calories available for each person is too low, those numbers were used to estimate how many people are food insecure.

The new survey, called ELCSA (for Escala Latinoamericana y Caribena de Seguridad Alimentaria), takes a more personal approach. Based on the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module used by the Department of Agriculture, ELCSA yields more nuanced information. Results show where in a country hunger is most pernicious, which groups are hungry at greater rates and whose diets are adequate in calories but not nutrients.

Initial results from surveys conducted in Brazil and Colombia suggest hunger is a much larger issue than we knew. The survey is already being adopted in other Central and South American countries.

In Context: Cambodia

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Falguni Vyas

Photo by Jennifer Phoon, used under Creative Commons

Overview

Population: 15 million

Native greeting: Choum Reap Sour (hello)

Capital: Phnom Penh

Official language: Khmer

Local currency: Riel

Cambodia, nicknamed the Kingdom of Wonder, is located on theGulf of Thailand in Southeast Asia between Vietnam, Laos and Thailand; thecountry’s landscape is made up of low lying central plains, low mountains andthe upper reaches of the Mekong Delta.

It’s a land in recovery. Rich in history and naturalresources, Cambodia is influenced by decades of war and conflict. Ranked 139^thout of the world’s 196 countries on the 2011 HumanDevelopment Index, it’s considered one of the poorest countries in theworld.

Despite recent socio-economics progress, 31% of thecountry’s estimated 14.8 million people live on less than $1.25 a day—that’s 4.6million men, women and children. To add a little perspective, it would be as ifevery person in South Carolina (population 4.6 million) had only $1.25 a day totake care of all necessary expenses—we’re talking basic food, water andshelter.

In Cambodia, 80% of the population lives in rural areas andhalf of the workforce is employed in agriculture, the country’s major industry.Rice farming is huge and many villagers raise cattle and pigs. However, due toslow growth and high mortality rates combined with a lack of education and accessto new technologies, productivity is slow and many families can only produceenough food for a few months out of the year. When food is in short supply, manyfarmers end up borrowing money from lenders, usually with interest rates ashigh as 10%.

Photo by: Sylvain Raybaud, used under Creative Commons

Adding fuel to the fire, malnutrition rates in Cambodiansare among the highest in Asia. Nearly 40% of children are chronicallymalnourished and have deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and iodine.

Fish is the most common source of protein for Cambodians butfarmers lack adequate experience in aquaculture. The daily catch almost alwayscomes from natural ponds, canals and rice fields, contributing to a declining fish population.

It’s not all bleak though, in the last decade, the economyhas seen progress. While still low, the per capita income is slowly increasingthanks in part to the growth of agriculture.

Heifer’s approach inCambodia

Photo by: Matt Bradley courtesy of Heifer International

Livestock Portfolio:Cows, Buffalo, goats, chickens, ducks, pigs and fish fingerlings

Technology portfolio:Organic farming, biogas and composting

Issues addressed:Income generation, migration, adult literacy, women and leadership,environment, HIV/AIDS and domestic violence

To address the challenges of income deficiency, lack ofnutritional food options and small farmer education, Heifer Cambodia uses a holisticdevelopment approach that encourages rural families to become involved in thecommunity development process. To begin with, families receive a package ofagricultural inputs, like a cow or two piglets, fish fingerlings, fodder,vegetable seeds and cassava stems, apply the HeiferCornerstones, receive education and training in technical skills so thatthey are able to improve and diversify their food production in a sustainablemanner. This process builds up self-confidence and provides a way to beself-reliant for a better future.

Heifer Cambodia works with small farmers to improve productivityand provide access to markets. Heifer enables limited-resource farm families toimprove the quality of their lives and equips them to assist others, providingopportunities for families to produce and share food and income from their ownresources in ways that are economically and ecologically sound. Based onHeifer’s best practice on internalized holistic development, the participatingfamilies form and work as self help groups, which encourages fullparticipation.

Since 1999, Heifer Cambodia has assisted 10,926 families

Heifer Blog

The official blog of Heifer International

Tag Archives: malnutrition