In the simple yet eloquent words of Haitibones blogger traumaqueen, “Haiti is hungry. Very hungry”. http://traumaqueen1.blogspot.com/2010/05/everyone-here-has-chest-pain.htmlMost people in Haiti eat only one meal per day. Even the patients hospitalized in Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti (HAH) are given only one meal per day. Even if that meal is 500 calories, it is still inadequate nutrition to heal wounds, clear infections, and knit bones. Many returning volunteer docs and nurses we have contacted after their return from HAH confirm that malnutrition is a huge problem.
A little research on the Internet, and we found “Plumpy Nut”, a Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). That's NGO-speak for a food product especially designed and manufactured to treat hungry children in Africa suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition. Where to find Plumpy Nut? There's a great story by Anderson Cooper that explains the origins of Plumpy Nut and how its use in Niger and other African nations has made a huge dent in the need to hospitalize children with malnutrition. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtml
Plumpy Nut is manufactured in Niger, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the DR of Congo. How are we supposed to get PN to bring with us to Haiti? A little more research and deeper drilling on the internet reveals that a new factory (Edesia.... http://www.edesiallc.org/index.html) recently opened in Providence, Rhode Island (and Plymouth Plantations) for manufacturing Plumpy Nut. Our daughter Danielle happens to be a grad student in Providence at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and just finished her first year in the Interior Architecture Department. What an opportunity to kill three birds with one stone, so I flew up to Providence this week, had a back stage tour of Edesia (see photos of our Edesia tour), purchased 500 lbs of Plumpy Nut, threw the 15 cartons (34 lbs each) in the back of Danielle's Ford Escape, and drove back to Baltimore with Danielle, Matisse the cat, and 15 cartons of Plumpy Nut (each containing 150 sachets, 500 calories per sachet, 75,000 calories per carton). Now all we have to do is figure out how to distribute the 15 cartons into the checked bags of Team Sinai along with all the other gear and supplies we're bringing! More about Plumpy Nut and the Haitian factory in Cap Haitien producing Medika Mamba later...
I am still undecided. I love my Clif bars with nearly 100% organic ingredients with great flavors. Combine with a vanilla or chocolate whey protein shake (50g highly digestable protein) and you got yourself a decent meal!
ReplyDeleteits important to remember that plumpy'nut is a medical nutritional product intended in Haiti for treatment of severely malnourished children only. Moderately malnourished children receive a different product called supplementary plumpy. There's a national protocol developed by the ministry of health in Haiti that should be followed when it is used. If Adventist Hospital has a malnutrition treatment program they should be able to receive Plumpy'nut from Unicef in Haiti for free.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Anonymous, our use of Plumpy'nut at Adventiste is not for classic malnutrition, but rather primarily as an nutritional aid for healing in post-surgical patients. The hospital has limited resources, and generally supplies food to patients on a once a day basis only (mid-day meal). Families must purchase outside food to help feed their relatives. Through the generosity of donors, RTUF supplements have been provided for malnourished surgical patients (includes most patients) at Adventiste.
ReplyDeleteThe nutritional profile of Plumpy'nut and Supplementary Plumpy is essentially identical. We have switched from Plumpy'nut (manufactured in the USA) to Medika Mamba (manufactured in Haiti) in order to support the local economy.
This was a lovely blog ppost
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