One of the initiatives of the Health program in Peace Corps Peru is prevention of chronic malnutrition. In Peru, 40% of children under the age of 5 years old living in rural areas are chronically malnourished. Along with the NGO PRISMA, I have facilitated several sessions for mothers with young children about the importance of nutrition and how to prepare nutritious meals for their families. The women are so accustomed to serving rice and maybe a little bit of meat to their growing children every day. After talking about the significance of a balanced meal where children can get protein, and the important vitamins to be healthy growing children, we prepared foods from the region to show how easy it is to stay on a budget and prepare food that their kids will enjoy, but also that will provide adequate nourishment.
For this project, I worked with the Health Promoters in my community, who are volunteers who help with health promotion for families in Pampa Elera. It was great that I could get them involved and also that we could show the community that the community is working for itself to improve the health of its own children (not just have a random extranjera come in and teach how they should change their health practices). The sessions seemed to be successful and we plan to do follow up house visits with the families to ensure that they are practicing healthy and nutritional habits in their homes.
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