Photo: Norma gathers vegetables from her garden. Photo by Lys Arango for Action Against Hunger Peru.
In Santiago de Lucanamarca, Peru, 1 out of 3 girls and boys suffer from chronic malnutrition and 3 out of 5 girls and boys suffer from anemia (What it is anemia? It is a deficiency of red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood). This is the biggest problem identified by community members and health personnel.
When Norma Revate Chaupin’s daughter fell sick, she was very afraid and took her straight to the doctor. “I did not know what was wrong with her, she was apathetic and without energy. I tried a thousand things, but she did not improve, so one day my husband and I carried the girl to the health center,” explains Norma. Her daughter was later diagnosed with anemia.
The doctor found that her daughter Liz had a hemoglobin score of 9, when it should be above 12. “So scared I was with what the doctor explained to us about the consequences of the anemia that I followed to the letter everything she told me to heal my kid,” says this young mother.
Photo: Norma’s daughter, Liz, suffered from anemia, but thanks to all of the help she received, she made a quick recovery. Photo by Lys Arango for Action Against Hunger Peru.
The recovery of the girl was impressively fast because she also had the support of Action Against Hunger to improve her garden and build some sheds for rabbits. Her husband was so grateful that he decided to get even more involved with the community and is now a community health volunteer. He works a few days a week visiting families with children under 5 to identify cases of malnutrition and anemia and refer them to the health center so they can begin their recovery as soon as possible.
“We were lucky and now we want to help raise awareness among the other families about the need to keep their children healthy,” concludes Norma with a big smile.
Photo: Norma irrigates her crops. Photo by Lys Arango for Action Against Hunger Peru.
Your ongoing commitment to our work in Peru enables us to carry out nutritional monitoring visits in the area. In addition, we are working on increasing the availability of foods of animal origin in children’s diet and providing training in key practices in infant feeding. Your support means that we can help children like Liz fight anemia in Peru. Thank you for making this possible.