Empowering Women to Fight Malnutrition
Summary
IMC is working with 10 women's groups in northern Uganda to teach women to feed their families and to produce a surplus of a world-recognized nutritional supplement, which they can sell to NGOs.
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Received $1,340 from 17 donations from people like: |
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More Information About this Project
Project Needs and Beneficiaries
North Uganda has endured 20 years of war and malnutrition is rampant. Rather than simply donate food to needy families, IMC seeks to end cycles of malnutrition and impoverishment by teaching women to make a peanut-based "therapeutic" food, which they can make from local ingredients and sell to NGOs--which in turn use the product to feed malnourished children in camps and villages. This therapeutic food is ready-to-eat and contains the nutrients children need to recover from deadly malnutrition.
Activities
IMC provides women's collectives with the start-up tools and materials to produce therapeutic food, supplementing them with food distributions in the initial months. Over time, women will earn a steady income through ensured market access.
Funding Information
Total Funding Received to Date: $1,340
Remaining Goal to be Funded: $9,660
Total Funding Goal: $11,000
Additional Documentation
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
Resources
Why this Project is Important
Potential Long Term Impact
This replicable project helps women with little to no economic opportunities attain a sustainable income cultivating and processing native foods into a therapeutic supplement that in turn will help heal thousands of malnourished children.
Project Message
The nutrition program that IMC has, which I am working on, is really helping. I have met some incredible people who are so kind and quick to smile despite their unbearable living conditions.
- Melissa Fitzgerald, "West Wing" actress and IMC supporter
Who is Running This Project
Contact
Gita Wenaweser,
Resource Development Officer
1919 Santa Monica Boulevard
#400
Santa Monica, CA 90404
United States
3108267800
Email:
Project Sponsor
Organization
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International Medical Corps (IMC) 1919 Santa Monica Boulevard #400 Santa Monica, CA 90404 United States 310.826.7800 http://www.imcworldwide.org |
Learn more about International Medical Corps (IMC) and the project team.
International Medical Corps (IMC)'s Current Projects on GlobalGiving
Where this Project is Located
Country
This project is located in 
Uganda
and can also be found under 
Health.
For more information about Uganda, read the Human Development Report on Uganda or the Wikipedia entry for Uganda.
When this Project was Updated
Last Updated
This project was last updated on February 13, 2007.
Date Added to GlobalGiving
This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on August 24, 2006.
Latest Update from the Field
When Hard Work Becomes Hope--Local Production of Therapeutic Food in Uganda
By Stacey Freeman - Director of Resource Development, February 13, 2007 04:13 PM
What's red, white, and nutritious all over? Plumpy'Nut, a delicious peanut butter bar that comes in a 3-ounce red and white foil package.
Made by the French company Nutriset, Plumpy'Nut is what we in the humanitarian world call "ready-to-eat therapeutic food." This means that, unlike food powders that must be mixed by experts, Plumpy’Nut is ready to open and eat as is. Mothers can just pick it up and carry it home rather than walking their sick children to a far-away clinic. Packed full of essential vitamins and nutrients, Plumpy'Nut is like a suped-up nutrition bar. The difference is that it is not made for endurance athletes or busy commuters; rather, this revolutionary little bar's purpose is to save children dying of malnutrition.
IMC regularly distributes Plumpy'Nut as part of its therapeutic feeding programs. However, in Uganda we decided to be a bit revolutionary ourselves: we've partnered with Unicef to not only give Plumpy'Nut to needy mothers and children, but to actually teach women to produce the same product in their own communities.
In August 2006 a representative from Nutriset worked with IMC's Nutrition Program Coordinator to produce an easy-to-use manual that teaches mothers how to reproduce Plumpy'Nut using both local ingredients and Nutriset's specially-developed vitamin and mineral mix.
Mothers learned what malnutrition is and what causes it, what a therapeutic food is and why it's important, and finally how to produce Plumpy'Nut themselves--from grinding peanuts to packaging and storing the finished product. Now local farmers are increasing their sales, mothers are teaching mothers about malnutrition, and the children of Pader Province have a sustainable source of nutritious food that's red, white, and 100% their own!
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