Nutrition Program Expansion

Nutrition education by Pop Wuj students. 

Among the many programs that Pop Wuj administers, the Nutrition Program is the fastest growing, and now serves approximately 75 children in Llanos de Pinal, La Victoria, and Buena Vista.  

Thursday, July 11 was an expansion day for the Nutrition Program.  The principle aspects of the program are education and the provision of nutrient-rich Nutributter.  Monthly meetings include education and the distribution of vitamins, Nutributter, Incaparina.  The program is funded in large part by our partner, Timmy Global Health.

Last Thursday, we had the good fortune of having several of the Pop Wuj medical students put together a presentation on child nutrition, particularly focusing on what to feed children between 0-6 months, 6-12 months, and 1-2 years of age.  Importantly, the presentation also sought to remind parents that Nutributter is meant as a supplement, not as an entire diet by itself, no matter how old the child is.

Pop Wuj students explain appropriate food options for children over 1 year of age.

Following the presentation, the children were assessed for malnutrition, virtually ubiquitous in rural Guatemala, by taking measures including their weight, height, and head circumference.  These data points are recorded for future reference and graphed over time to help evaluate the effectiveness of the program.  

Families meet individually with the Pop Wuj doctors.

The mothers of the children are also interviewed to assess risk factors for child malnutrition related to poverty, including the number of people living in the home, living conditions, and the amount of money the family earns.  

While the group is rather large in Llanos de Pinal, with over 50 children enrolled, the groups in Buena Vista and La Victoria are considerably smaller.  The Buena Vista includes 15 children and La Victoria just four children.

Coupled with the Scholarship Program, Pop Wuj is doing truly amazing things to help give under-privileged Guatemalan children a legitimate chance at a healthy, impactful life.  For the mothers of these children who never had such opportunities, many of them growing up during Guatemala’s civil war, it is plain to see their gratitude as they sometimes have difficulty even placing a sufficient amount of food on the table for themselves and their children.  I believe I speak for all visitors of Pop Wuj when I say that it is truly a rewarding experience to have an opportunity to give our time and energy to such an incredibly worthy cause.

Carmen explains details of the Nutrition Program in Buena Vista.

A Team Effort to Fight Infant Mortality in Guatemala

The Pop Wuj Medical Program recently hosted/facilitated three midwife trainings in and around Xela.  With the support of Timmy Global Health, we trained approximately 80 local midwives on newborn resuscitation techniques.  For more information, please see Dr. Lucinda Grande's blog post:

A Team Effort to Fight Infant Mortality in Guatemala

Pop Wuj Inaugurates New Dental Clinic

                  After six months of comparing prices and doing research, Pop Wuj recently purchased equipment for a brand new dental clinic catering ot the low income population that the association serves. During the week of June 26^th Pop Wuj inaugurated the dental clinic by filling cavities of its first patients. Before the dental clinic Pop Wuj worked with a dentist though he was only able to pull teeth due to a lack of space and equipment. With the inauguration of the new clinic the dentist will attend two days a week instead of one and will able to fill cavities, do cleanings, and extractions.  It will also help improve dental hygiene in the population through preventative education and providing floss, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to patients.  The low costs of the services in the dental clinic (extractions will cost 10Q, cleaning 50Q, and fillings 60Q) ensure better access to dental care for those who could otherwise not afford it. 

Timmy Brigade and Nutributter Visits

           Last week was busy for the medical clinic because a Timmy brigade from Butler University came to help out at the Pop Wuj and mobile medical clinic.  It was a group of about 25 medical students and doctors saw up to a hundred patients each day in different communities around Xela.   Monday they went with the mobile clinic to Buena Vista, Tuesday they worked in the Pop Wuj clinic (the line of patients wrapped around the corner!), Wednesday to Pujujil, Thursday to ACAM (AsociaciónComadrona del Area Mam) in San Juan, and Friday to Xeabaj II. From what they recounted, the experience was beneficial, interesting, and educational for them.  Two weeks ago was the mobile clinic’s first visit to ACAM, which with around 25 patients was a successful first visit.

            The coordinator for the medical clinic continues to hold meetings with the NutriButter recipients. Two weeks ago we met two different groups of women from San Juan to distribute NutriButter supplies and have a discussion, and just yesterday we visited the women in Llanos de Pinal.  The discussion topic was dehydration and the importance of drinking clean water.  This coming week we will meet again with the women of San Juan to prepare a nutritious meal and discuss more about the role of nutrition in daily life.   

Nutributter; January 19

Last week, we visited our NutriButter families in Buena Vista and La Victoria - moms who have been participating for about 6 months in the program.  As always, we both brought new vitamin and NutriButter supplies and a lesson to improve the mother's knowledge about good nutrition's positive impact on the body.  This week we focused on the connection between malnutrition and infection, a dangerous cycle that can result in not only continual sickness, but stunted grown and poor development.  While the topic was both difficult to explain and of quite grave content, the level of participation was higher than we'd seen before.  The moms were laughing, chatting, and fully engaging with the material we presented.  With this kind of positive change, we hope that with continued visits and increased comprehension sustainable change will be made for these families' food intake.  

Nutributter project

Over the last two weeks before Christmas, Pop Wuj has launched it's second group of NutriButter families.  Women and children from Llanos, Chiriquiac, Buena Vista, and Tierra Colorada - all nearby rural communities with high poverty levels - arrived at Pop Wuj on Friday December 9th to a room full of crying babies, excited children, and curious mothers.  As before, Pop Wuj asked mothers with children between 6 and 20 months to engage in a nutrition education and supplementation program, funded by Timmy Global Health.  

After the initial welcome meeting explaining the ins and outs of NutriButter to the moms and families, Jess Reichard, Dona Lidia, one of the hard working Guarderia teachers, and Dona Lety, a member of the first round of NutriButter families and the resident handy lady of Pop Wuj walked for hours from home to home handing out more NutriButter, children's vitamins, and making sure the supplement and program was going smoothly.  These home visits are not only to make sure everyone has enough NutriButter to get through the holidays, but also to start building a relationship of trust and learning between the moms and Pop Wuj volunteers.  The stronger the relationship, the more potential impact the nutrition program can have in its target communities. 

From here on out, a couple of long term Pop Wuj volunteers will teach monthly classes at the Guarderia, the most central location for this group generally from Llanos and Tierra Colorada.  Each meeting will cover a new topic of nutritional interest - from supplementary feeding to the nutrition-infection cycle.  As babies age out, more will be invited to join the group, ideally continuing to grow the area of impact of this supplement/education program.