Families from Tierra Colorada and Llanos de Pinal Join the “NutriButter” Program
By: Jessica Reichard
Just as the holidays were approaching in Guatemala, Pop Wuj and Timmy initiated a brand new group of mothers and babies into our ongoing Supplemental Nutrition, or “NutriMantequilla” Program, as it is affectionately called. These 16 new families joined us mostly from Llanos de Pinal and Tierra Colorada, two rural, mostly Mayan communities who have received stoves in the past from Pop Wuj’s Estufas program.
The initial meeting, held on December 9th, found Pop Wuj filled with mothers, grandmothers, and children of all ages milling about, awaiting information about a program whose name was undoubtedly a little odd, in any language. First Carmen Alvarado, the Social Work Coordinator (and the reason why we were able to invite so many women from these new areas), gave a general introduction to the program – not only about the daily supplement, but also our monthly meetings with lessons concerning nutrition, hygiene, infection and disease, and more. Dr. Meg Sullivan followed, shedding light on the more detailed and potentially complicated aspects of nutritional supplements in the lives of young, developing babies. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the entire afternoon was watching the mothers, as they were able to sample a little NutriButter themselves. As peanut butter, let alone sugary peanut butter, isn’t a typical food in their diets, surprise marked many faces as they popped their buttery fingers into their mouths for a quick taste.
After explaining the proper daily use of NutriButter, each mother was individually interviewed to obtain demographic information, and ensure adequate understanding of NutriButter. Each mother also signed a contract to formalize their commitment to the nutrition program – not only to give their little ones the nutritional supplement correctly, but also to attend our monthly educational meetings on relevant nutritional topics. Finally, we measured the head circumference, height, and weight of all our future participants – instead of laughter, Pop Wuj rang with the startled cries of 20 babies forced to sit on a cold metal scale while we gathered our essential, but uncomfortable, data. In the future, we will gather the same data once every two to three months and create individual growth charts to show the successful nutritional impact of NutriButter on physical development.
To follow up, home visits were conducted after 1 week at each of the new participants’ homes, with the guidance of our local heroes, Dona Leti in Tierra Colorada, Dona Lidia in Llanos de Pinal, and Dona Luisa in Buena Vista. In addition to checking in on the progress and continued understanding of NutriButter, we completed a second interview, asking a series of knowledge- and habit-based questions in obtain pre-program data. With this information we will be able to better measure increased knowledge levels and changes in nutrition-related habits after attending the series of monthly nutritional talk. Questions included knowledge of certain minerals like Iron and Calcium, feeding habits during a child’s illness, and how the family usually cleans their fruits and vegetables. As we plan to teach lessons on these topics (and many more), these initial questions develop the baseline upon which we can measure how much of the information we share is retained by the mothers.
As we add more families and further develop this nutrition program, Pop Wuj and Timmy hope to increase not only our numbers, but even more so its effectiveness and sustainability. As always, challenges exist, but the rewards – increased cerebral and physical development and lowered chance of disease – are undeniably worthwhile.
judy caplan says:
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 7:13pm
Awesome work.You are changing lives!