Description
One in five children in Haiti is malnourished. The US organisation Meds and Food for Kids (MFK) is treating 8,000 children with a high energy, nutritious peanut paste.
Taken over six weeks, the course helps children to gain four grammes per kilogram of weight per day.
MFK employees grow, roast and grind the peanuts locally and is hoping to grow enough peanuts in the future to be able to export them to other countries in need.
The high energy mixture is having an 85 per cent success rate. For toddlers like, Givnelle Moravien, the mixture is proving a great success.
For children to take the mixture – Medika Mamba – their parents have to sign an agreement committing them to follow the programme for six weeks. Since the mixture can been taken at home, it reduces hospital visits.
The children are also given antibiotics and water sanitation tablets that will help them to fight off infections from water borne bacteria.
Medika Mamba is produced entirely in Haiti. MFK is employing twenty Haitian workers to do the work. So they’re training Haitian farmers, to help them increase their productivity.
It is a long term strategy that they hope will pay off.