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Thanks to your faithful support, 2008 has already been an exciting and rewarding year for Shoulder to Shoulder! Construction of our new clinic in Concepcion is well underway, and attending school has become a reality for 85 scholarship students.
Shoulder to Shoulder’s current infrastructure has enabled us to obtain a grant to improve health and nutrition in young children in the poorest region of Honduras. We continue to marvel at the generosity of our donors who have risen to the challenge of changing the lives of the poor of Honduras.
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| Shoulder to Shoulder Increases Efforts to Improve Nutrition in Childhood |
A major grant is awarded to Shoulder to Shoulder from the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation to provide more services during brigades:
Shoulder to Shoulder has just received the good news that the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation in Rochester, New York, has awarded us $19,220 to initiate a program that will deliver eight evidence-based, life-saving and disability-preventing interventions to 3000 children in 100 rural communities in the poorest and most remote area of Honduras (western Intibuca). This ambitious project is only possible through an organization like Shoulder to Shoulder, whose 20 years of success is built on the foundation of unique partnerships between professors,
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doctors and nurses from academic centers in the United States and local Honduran farmers, teachers and community workers who form the local extensions of the larger organization — Hombro a Hombro (Spanish for Shoulder to Shoulder) Health Committees. During the health brigades, volunteers will provide all children in the region we serve with the following services: zinc and vitamin A supplementation for each child, testing and treatment of iron deficiency, anti-parasitic therapy, vision screening, the application of dental varnish, and treatment of any other medical needs noted during a thorough medical examination. We will evaluate the results and determine which communities have the greatest need of further interventions. |
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Shoulder to Shoulder is pursuing efforts to develop a comprehensive feeding program for children under five years of age:
In Honduras, the department (state) of Intibuca is one of the five poorest states in the country with poverty rates of 60%.
Because families cannot sustain themselves on this income, malnutrition rates are high with up to 60% growth stunting and 20% wasting rates in some communities. Shoulder to Shoulder has developed and sustained successful projects to develop school-based nutrition programs, but efforts to develop programs for pregnant women and children under five have not been adequately addressed due to limited resources.
Feeding children with complementary foods during early infancy and continuing through the pre-school period is the most important time period for nutritional intervention due to the high vulnerability and long term consequences that occur relative to malnutrition during this age. Undernutrition during this phase of childhood growth causes neurological damage that is permanent and prevents any significant improvement resulting from later (school age) feeding programs.
Currently complementary feeding practices for children under two are inadequate at best and likely harmful. Mothers introduce contaminated free water as early as two weeks, and often the supplementation consists of only diluted powdered milk and corn meal. Unfortunately, some of these practices are even encouraged by other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working in the area. Shoulder to Shoulder is working with the newly formed Nutrition Foundation, as well as the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, to develop a long term project that will feed the children under age five in Intibuca, develop best practice standards and protocols, and disseminate this program to other similar projects throughout Central America. Combined with other Shoulder to Shoulder programs in health and education, we hope to break the cycle of poor nutrition, inadequate education, and lack of preventive services. With your support, we continue to promote improved childhood nutrition, maximal cognitive function, good primary health care, and cultural empowerment of girls. |
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| Young girl rests in a hammock |
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| Midmorning break |
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| Young boy enjoys a bowl of cereal |
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Nutrition and Health:
In 2003, the World Health Organization produced a series of articles focusing on child survival in the developing world. The shocking conclusions demonstrated that simple interventions exist to prevent 6 million of the 11 million deaths of children under five each year. Most of these children die of respiratory illness, diarrhea, malaria and measles.
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Many can be prevented with very simple measures. Sixty percent of these deaths are linked to malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. Studies have shown that by supplementing zinc, vitamin A and iron into the diets of children, deaths due to diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and measles can be prevented. These interventions not only reduce mortality; they also increase the success of children in school, decrease blindness and prevent irreversible mental retardation.
Unfortunately, even though we have the knowledge of how to help, reaching the poorest children in the most remote areas, who are most at risk, remains the greatest challenge. Shoulder to Shoulder, because of its network of communities and community organizations, effectively reaches some of the most isolated and poverty-stricken communities on a regular basis and can provide these services at a greatly reduced cost. |
"Let us touch the dying, the poor,
the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow
to do the humble work." - Mother Theresa |
Meet Dr. Ruben Martinez
Dr. Ruben Martinez was born in Honduras in the city of Yoro
in September, 1972. As the eldest of 4 children, Ruben has a brother who is an
agronomic engineer, a sister who is a dentist and a sister who is a pharmacist.
His father is a retired English teacher and his mother a teacher as
well. Elementary school was spent in Yoro, however, Dr. Martinez attended
junior and senior high in the United States while living with an aunt in Miami,
Florida. In 1993, Ruben began his studies at the Medical School of Honduras and
dedicated himself to serving the people of his country. Hombro a Hombro has been
fortunate to have Dr. Martinez working at the clinic in Santa Lucia for 2 ½
years. In his free time, Dr. Martinez likes to travel the country and has a
strong preference for the coast. |
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Medical and Dental Services
To donate online, please
visit www.shouldertoshoulder.org
or, if you would prefer
to pay by check, please make your contribution payable
to Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.
and mail it to:
Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.
4754 Chapel Ridge Dr
Cincinnati, Ohio 45223
To remove your name from our mailing list, please click here.
Questions or comments? E-mail us at info@shouldertoshoulder.org
or call 513-685-7007 |
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Remember: If it was easy, someone else would have done it a long time ago. Shoulder to Shoulder can only be successful with courage,
boldness and persistence in its advocacy for the poor. |
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