Category: Health

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Twin’s Favorite Food

This week, we are excited to campaign together with GlobalGiving during the Little by Little Campaign. With just $50, we can provide half a year of eggs to 1 child and our goal is to raise 20 – $50 donations. PLUS from today until Friday, GlobalGiving will match online donations up to $50 at 50%, making your donation go even further! Together you will help get eggs to even more children for half a year!

We share with you a story of twin sisters that highlights just how much one egg a day means to our program participants. Meet Rosa and Daisy, they are twin sisters to a single dad. Earlier this year their mother unexpectedly left the family, taking with her two of her four children. The twins were devastated and lost a lot of weight, yet their dad was determined to keep them healthy. He asked for help from two of his nieces in caring for the twins. Each niece cares for and knows all the preferences of one twin. They are among the first arrivals every month because the twins only eat “eggs, rice, beans and tortillas.” With the help of the eggs Sts gives them, the twins have been gaining weight after the trauma of losing their mother. 
No matter what challenges we or the children in our Hens Hatching Hope program face, positive change is possible Little by Little when we all come together. We are determined to continue helping children like Rosa and Daisy grow. That is why we are writing to you this week. Can you help us get half-a-year of eggs to more children? 

 

In High Spirit,

Mariela Rodriguez

Communications Coordinator
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Testing the Waters with Nava

Nava (left) collects water sample

By Mariela Rodriguez – Communications Coordinator

This spring we had the privilege of welcoming back third-time volunteer, Nava Barman. When he first arrived in 2017, Nava shares how our mountainous region was reminiscent of “my family’s hometown in Northeast India,”- which is one of the reasons he has enjoyed returning. Now as a medical student pursuing his Masters in Public Health at Harvard he reached out to Shoulder to Shoulder to do his practicum.When Nava met with our Hens Hatching Hope staff they asked him whether our region’s drinking water could be causing children to continue contracting diahrrea. To prepare answering this broad question, Nava consulted with two field experts. This allowed him to strategize a needs assessment in Santa Lucia and Colomoncagua which included 2 main activities: testing multiple water sources for E.coli and interviewing key members to understand how water is treated and consumed by children under 5 years old.

Nava met with the local ‘juntas de agua‘ – community water committees who volunteer to do anything from keeping the water pipes clean to distributing water. They were happy to hike up the mountain with Nava to collect water samples for testing, amounting to 20 samples, from 8 communities.

After Nava conducted a portable water test, he had to grapple with delivering difficult news. Over 90% of his samples came back positive for E.coli shedding some light on what kind of water our children are drinking at home and at school. While there is no easy solution to many complex public health problems, projects like Nava’s help to create data and bring evidence to pre-existing suspicions that are present in our communities. In this case, what is contributing to our children’s frequent diahrrea bouts.

Thank you to Nava who chose to return to our region to conduct his practicum. We wish him the best as he continues his studies and we hope to see him back in Honduras once more.

To read Nava Barman’s full blog entry on Harvard’s website, click on the link below

Links:

Nava Barman's Intibuca Frontera Community Water Schema
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Eggs: Enticing Mothers to Come to the Health Center

By Laura Failla Manship – Executive Director

Mothers, fathers, and children at health center

Mothers, fathers, and children at health center

For the past two years, we have been writing about two of the benefits of our “Hens Hatching Hope: Un Huevo Cada Dia” project.  Those are:(1) Eggs provide much needed nutrients to the target group of children from 6 months of age to 3 years of age; and

(2) The microloans, and StS’s purchases of eggs, help to sustain 25 women run small hen raising businesses.

Today we want to write about a third benefit of the project.  This is:  mothers (or fathers) can only receive their vouchers for 30 free eggs by attending a monthly health check up at their local health center. 

During this visit, not only do they receive the vouchers, but they are seen by a Health Promotor, who weighs and measures the child, and answers any medical questions the family might have.  If there are any medical issues, a consultation with the medical provider happens right then and there.  As an added bonus, health education presentations are also provided to the parents.

The local medical providers are thrilled that due to the Hen Hatching Hope project, there is an almost 100% attendance rate at these monthly visits.  Free eggs entice the mothers to come — but the education the families receive, and the medical care received, are invaluable assets to improving health outcomes for the 400 children in the project.

Thank you to all of our Hens Hatching Hope supporters!

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