HONDURAS

Hunger and malnutrition plague many families in the dry arid southern region of Honduras, called Choluteca.

AMDV has significantly improved the lives of many families in Choluteca through a range of participatory activities:
• developing family, community and school gardens
• teaching mothers to cook and eat healthy
• developing chicken coops so that families have access to protein
• building improved stoves that significantly reduce smoke inhalation
• training 18 community health volunteers to monitor the development of over 200 children under the age of 5 years
• developing an early childhood stimulation program so that children learn new skills
• monitoring pregnant women to ensure healthy births.

The results have been encouraging. Families now have more diverse foods to eat, including eggs for protein. Women and children are healthier as they are no longer breathing in the smoke from open fires. Last year, all the pregnant women gave birth to healthy babies, and 92% of the children recovered from malnutrition, and gained normal height and weight.