United States (Florida)
Nominated Mar 10, 2010
If we win the $1000 grant from the IWHC Young Visionaries contest, we will establish a non-profit organization that facilitates malnutrition prevention programs for pregnant and lactating mothers in Managua, Nicaragua. We plan to provide access to Supplementary Plumpy, a ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), to empower mothers to give their future children healthy starts to life. The project will entail training health promoters to operate the program; obtaining and distributing Supplementary Plumpy, providing consult on its usage for the women; and coordinating with local clinics and/or Nicaraguan-run non-profit organizations to provide prenatal care and monitor the expecting mothers’ health throughout pregnancy and through six months of breastfeeding.
Our program will strive to prevent childhood malnutrition through primary interventions, while simultaneously ensuring maternal health. The program will help Nicaraguan women maintain their own health during and after pregnancy through health education, nutritional supplementation, and medical support. In addition, we will provide access to rapid HIV tests to all expecting mothers upon entering the program. We believe that the most powerful tool that young women have to combat the systemic inequalities that they face daily is knowledge. With medical support and health education, young women who are aware of their HIV status and connected with resources can make informed decisions regarding their own health and the health of their growing families.
Our project connects resources from the “Global North” to the “Global South”–we will serve as the link between a Rhode Island-based non-profit company that produces Supplementary Plumpy and the organizations that serve women and children in Nicaragua. Supplementary Plumpy has been used in many parts of Africa and Asia to alleviate malnutrition in children and pregnant mothers. We seek to introduce this RUTF to communities that have been overlooked not only by their governments, but also by international aid organizations, as most of the malnutrition alleviation efforts involving RUTF have been concentrated in other world regions. Our project addresses the needs of women in both rural and urban communities in Nicaragua and connects them to one of the most effective RUTF products available today.
In addition, by involving young Nicaraguans as community health promoters, the project will build a future generation of young community leaders that will fight for the health of women and children in Nicaragua. It is in this way that citizens, the ones who are truly capable of enacting social change, are empowered to speak up for themselves and those that are most vulnerable. We believe that connecting Nicaraguans to one another will forge strong alliances as we collaborate to provide young women with the information and medical resources that they need for a healthy present and future.
In short, we have three target groups of young women whom this project addresses: expecting mothers, community health workers, and infants who will be the next generation of young people. This grant will jump start a project that we see expanding across Nicaragua and beyond to help women guarantee the health of their own bodies, pregnancies, births, babies, and families.
What actions are you taking to promote and protect the health and rights of women and young people worldwide?
Currently, we are both serving as Program Directors with Manna Project International (MPI). We co-lead the MPI Child Sponsorship nutrition program in the municipal landfill in Managua, the country’s capital city. We manage the sponsorship program that provides approximately sixty children with supplementary nutritional products and medical resources. In addition, we fundraise for Casa Base clinic, which primarily serves women and children in the dump. This year we’ve led the program’s initiative to introduce Plumpy’doz, a ready-to-use therapeutic food, to the nutrition program as a replacement for fortified milk, oatmeal and vitamins that we previously distributed. We have learned immensely from the successes we’ve had and, of course, also the mistakes that we’ve made in the nutrition program. We believe that we’ve shown strong leadership in the nutrition program and in other Manna activities during our year in Managua. Our work in Nicaragua has built upon extensive prior experience living and working in communities in Thailand, Cambodia, and Ecuador and our educations at the University of Florida and Barnard College. We are prepared to use this knowledge and the relationships that we’ve already formed in Nicaragua with local organizations, communities, and individuals to build our program. In addition, we are in the process of seeking to establish a non-profit organization that connects Supplementary Plumpy with expecting mothers in Nicaragua. We see this project as a natural step from child nutritional interventions toward supporting young pregnant women. We have also begun to involve young Nicaraguans in our projects, and we aim to design a program that will capitalize upon their energy and enthusiasm. The foundation that we’ve built during our time in Nicaragua will facilitate our vision toward a plan for sustainable change for young women and their families in Nicaragua through supporting pregnant women.
What is your vision of lasting change for yourself and for the world's young people?
Women are the backbone of every nation; they are the nurturers, teachers, doctors, and friends to their entire communities, often encompassing all of these roles in one simple title – mom. They are the cornerstone of every family. Their loss is cataclysmic for a family unit, which often falls apart without a mother’s leadership, especially in the developing world. Our vision addresses the needs of young mothers and the young people of the next generation. By ensuring the health of women, specifically mothers, and helping to bring them and their children to a state of wellness, our project will help to ensure healthy and productive futures for generations to come.
If you could tell world leaders one thing, what would it be?
Investing early in health and education for young women empowers them to provide a healthy future for their families and for themselves. In their eyes, one finds the yearning to take their destiny into their own hands. Knowledge is powerful, and young women with access to information and resources can and will enact positive change in their communities and homes.
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Thanks everyone for your votes and support! Lots of love, Amelia and Anina