Project Medishare is working on equipping and training staff at the Akamil Production Facility and Nutrition Complex in the Thomonde community of Haiti's Central Plateau, 41 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince. Akamil is a nutritional supplement made from locally-grown beans, rice, wheat and corn, milled together into a digestible powder. This high protein cereal blend, which is fortified with vitamins and micronutrients and then cooked with clean water, has been made in Haiti for over 40 years. Akamil is recommended by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
For children under the age of 5 in the Central Plateau, chronic malnutrition is 33 percent and the mortality rate is 187 per 1000. Due to the recent migration patterns out of Port-au-Prince, the number of people Project Medishare cares for in Thomonde has increased by 29 percent. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that 49 percent of Haiti's population is undernourished. This new facility will not only vastly improve the nutritional well-being of high-risk populations (children, pregnant women, and HIV and TB patients), but will also provide jobs, benefit small farmers, and diversify the agricultural base.
To read more about this project, please click here and here.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
