Donations are absolutely critical in keeping this program open. We rely on the support of caring individuals to buy the foodstuffs we distribute to the very poor and vulnerable of this region.
The nutrition project has been running for over 15 years. It was established by another nurse, but Robin Pratt took it over when she and her family moved to Emkhuzweni Health Center, in northern Swaziland, in 1992. The nutrition clinic is open once a month.
The program has a dual purpose: to teach the mothers/ caregivers proper nutrition for the basic nourishment and care of their children. LFA also assists with foodstuffs to supplement what little food the children receive at home. The children that come to the program have been referred by the local doctor and nurses after having been seen at the local health center and identified as malnourished.
Once in the program:
- Mothers/caregivers are taught how to feed and care for their children.
- They receive practical training by assisting in cooking and in eating a nutritious lunch. The food is cooked in a three-legged pot over a fire, the same way they would cook at home.
- They learn the importance of eating all 3 food groups.
- They learn recipes in cooking local foods in nutritious combinations and new ways.
- Children are weighed to see if they have gained weight since their last visit.
- Each mother/caregiver receives a bit of private counseling if needed.
- Each mother/caregiver is sent home with food for the child for the month.
- Foodstuffs include: beans, sometimes peanuts or some other type of local legume, cooking oil, bleach (for treatment of their drinking water as they drink water from polluted rivers), vegetable seeds during winter planting season and legume seeds in the summer, vitamins, and formula for babies who are not being raised by their mothers, therefore, unable to have breast-milk.
- Periodically there will be a used clothing distribution.
- Toothbrushes and toothpaste are distributed at least yearly.
When the child gains enough weight and reaches the weight-range appropriate for a healthy child his or her age, he or she is discharged from the program and is sent home with a mango, avocado or banana tree. By this time the mother/caregiver has gained enough knowledge and experience that she will be able to continue raising the child on her own.
Some children do not show progress in gaining weight and we reluctantly conclude that there is HIV infection here and encourage the mother to be tested and have the child tested as well for HIV.
