2005-06-04 - 12:10 p.m.

This is the fourth entry I uploaded today. Click on "older entries" to the left of this page to read the previous entries!

June 4th, 2005

I uploaded just a few pictures I took yesterday while doing the “depistage” in neighboring villages. My goal was to find malnourished children who could benefit from feeding centers funded by Peace Corps Mauritania Alumni who collected a small amount of money in response to last year’s locust invasion that destroyed many crops and that, should they return, could threaten the country with a possible famine in the coming months…

I think the pictures speak for themselves, especially if you realize that those were the malnourished children who were actually able to stand on their own… In previous village visits I have held five-year old children unable to lift their heads up because of weakness and malnutrition.

I will only be able to open two feeding centers in my area, because of fund restrictions. The two villages that I surveyed were not aided by WFP (World Food Program) because they each had less than 25 children in need at the time of the “depistage” (note how the number of children in need has since then surpassed the 25-children threshold). Here are the statistics for the two villages, based on UNICEF measures (scale is from green to dark red according to the level of danger they are in):

• Borella Ehel Maham

28 children measured.

7% Dark Red (2 children: a girl, 12 months old weighing only 5,5 kg and measuring 68 cm and a 24 months-old girl weighing only 7 kg and measuring 80 cm)

25% Red (7 children, ages 12 to 59 months)

61% Yellow (17 children, ages 8 months to 59 months)

7% Green (2 children, ages 42 and 59 months)

• Ehel Boukhyar

32 children measured.

3% Dark Red (1 child: a 36-month old girl weighing 8,8 kg and measuring 89 cm)

44% Red (14 children ranging from 9 months to 48 months in age)

41% Yellow (13 children ranging from 6 months to 50 months in age)

12% Green (4 children, ranging from 16 months to 48 months in age

Out of 60 children measured, 54 will be given food rations twice a day for three months and their progress will be measured monthly.

While spending the day with Caritas representatives, who happened to be local Mauritanians, I was able to have very interesting exchanges about development approaches of various NGOs and the effectiveness and sustainability of their projects.

The Participatory Approach (pushing the benefiting community to make the main decisions regarding their development needs and solutions) seems to be the most effective way to go as well as implanting a development worker at the community level for an extended amount of time who can facilitate the local community’s development efforts with an enriched understanding of the local language, culture, challenges, politics, taboos, etc.

We also talked about nutrition education sessions that we will be giving to the women of the two villages when visiting them twice a month to follow the feeding centers’ progress. It is important for “urgent response aid” to be accompanied by “long term development efforts” to give the local population the tools to be responsible for their own development and well-being as opposed to just giving them “short-term aid” and keeping them in a state of dependency. Not only do they not have the resources right now, but they also lack the knowledge about the basic health and nutrition notions that can help them achieve a better state. From this conversation came another very interesting one that I would like to research a bit in my remaining time here: cultural taboos linked to food consumption.

Did you know that if you eat eggs you become a thief? And that chicken and fish are only for people who cannot afford meat? And that vegetables can only be cooked with fish? And that watermelons are only for animals to eat? Uuuuummmm… I did not realize that so many myths existed on certain food products, hindering the nutritional value intake of many local Mauritanians… and probably Africans at large! The power of CULTURAL TABOOS and MISINFORMATION!!!!

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