I spent August and September back in Goma, DRCongo setting up the Lotoba production facility with the help of Glenn Bean, Marian Roan, and input from countless friends at HEAL Africa. As a reminder Lotoba is Global Strategies for HIV Prevention's name for the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) that we are producing for meeting the nutritional needs of malnourished children in the North Kivu region of Congo. RUTF is a revolutionary idea for treating severely malnourished children.
There are many benefits to RUTF. It is easy for the children to consume, has all the protein, calories, vitamins and minerals that they need to become healthy children, and this in turn gives them a better chance of not only survival but also of becoming successful members of their communities as they get older. The majority of brain development occurs before the age of 3 and physical development is directly related to the nutrition children have access to before the age of 5. A child who is malnourished in these first few years of life will be at a permanent physical and mental disadvantage for the rest of their lives.
There is also a huge benefit to children with HIV. Children who have HIV can forgo the need to start Antiretroviral(ARV) drugs if they are properly nourished. ARV's are required when CD4 counts (a measure of certain white blood cells) reach a dangerously low level. And once on ARV's the child will likely require them for the rest of their lives to remain healthy. ARV's are not cheep.
Our Lotoba project will start out by feeding the HIV positive children who are being treated at the HIV clinic at HEAL Africa in Goma. Then we hope to increase production capacity to meet the needs of the other aid organizations in the region who are using RUTF's purchased elsewhere for their nutrition projects. This will be the step that allows the project to be susstainable without the continued input of raised funds from the US and elsewhere.
The pictures above show the transformation of the facility we are using between August and the end of September. I left at the beginning of October and the facility is fully functional. There is a manager and 2 full time workers, both from a local widows organization who use their wages to care for their children and provide them with educational opportunities.
The pictures below show the process of measuring and weighing the child to determine if they are malnourished. The mid-upper arm circumfrance (MUAC) measurement is the most telling. A severely acute malnourished child (ie on the verge of starvation) will have a MUAC that is just about than of a broom handle. The other measurements are height and weight.
Parents (almost always Mothers) are then given a weeks worth of Lotoba to take home where they can feed their child while still taking care of her other children. This is another huge benefit of RUTF products like Lotoba. If the child had to remain at the hospital, so would the mother. There would be a cost to keep the child at the hospital, which is likely prohibitive since the mom has to stay at the hospital with the child, and the rest of the children in the family would likely be at home under the care of the oldest child, sometimes an 8 year old taking care of 2 or 3 younger siblings for who knows how many days or oven weeks.
We are very excited about the progress of this project. I thank all those who have taken part in Hope Walks events and donated funding. Anyone interested in donating can go to Global Strategies website or mail them a check and indicate that the donation is for the Lotoba Project.
