Improving life in Cerrito One Meal at a Time
16% of families in Cerrito live in extreme poverty. This means they survive on 102 dollars a month. However, as we already know, poverty not only means a lack of financial resources; it signals many types of deficiencies, such as a family’s’ eating habits and, consequently, their overall health. That is why the Fundación Paraguaya teamed up with Monsanto to roll out the Semillero del futuro project in Cerrito, Benjamin Aceval. In December 2018 and January 2019, a nutritionist and professional volunteers visited indigenous communities in Cerrito to take a closer look at the eating habits of 113 families that participate in the Poverty Stoplight project.
The families that indicated in their Poverty Stoplight survey that they were in red or yellow for the indicator ‘nutritious food’ were chosen to participate during this phase of the project. Being in the red for this indicator means that over the course of the previous week, at least one family member went to bed hungry or was forced to skip a meal due to a lack of money or food. Yellow means the family’s diet lacked at least one healthy food such as fruit or eggs. The Semillero del futuro project aims to improve these affected families’ lives by making safe and nutritious foods more accessible, explaining how families can improve their diets and teaching women and men how they can manage their very own kitchen garden and/or farm. This not only provides families with fresh produce, milk, eggs and meat, it also makes for a good opportunity to generate more income because they can sell their products to neighbors and other families. With Monsanto donating 15,500 dollars, Fundación Paraguaya was able to hire a nutritionist and an agricultural engineer. The funds will also allow the Fundación to organize courses on nutrition, maintaining a kitchen garden and/or a farm, and small business ownership.
A very important step in the process was to take a closer look at eating habits of the families. For four days, nutritionist Ana Laura Melgarejo Bogado and the Fundación’s professional volunteers Ada, Mary and Walter visited each family to explain the project again and to measure and weigh the mothers as well as 40 children between 0 and 5 years old. Only 27.4% of the women proved to have a healthy weight, with 37.2% being obese. Another 31% were overweight, and 1.8% underweight. 12 women were not at home during the visits.
For nutritionist Ana Laura, these numbers show the importance of the project in Cerrito. “A lot of women simply don’t know what you should or shouldn’t eat in order to maintain a healthy diet. They just lack information and knowledge. I explained to each woman what a healthy meal should look like with the help of a photo that pictured a plate with vegetables, meat and carbs. We handed out copies of those pictures so they get reminded every time they look at it.” The picture shows that 50% of your meal should consist of vegetables, 25% of grains and 25% of meat. “A lot of people consume way too much fat, rice or pasta and eat almost no vegetables. They also usually don’t live a very active lifestyle.”
In some cases, it is not so much a lack of knowledge or access that proves to be the problem. Some families simply cannot afford to eat well. “I think it’s a good thing they’re taught how to manage their own kitchen garden or small farm. It’s a win-win,” says Ana Laura. Owning their own animals and working on their own land will help families gain access to healthy food: they can easily and cheaply eat more fruit, vegetables, grains, eggs and meat. They can also sell produce and by doing so, generate more income. Families who are in red or yellow for the indicator ‘nutritious food’, are often in red or yellow for the indicator ‘income’ as well. Improving this indicator will be easier if families have their own gardens and/or keep animals.
Some families already knew they needed to change their habits and many women were also very eager to learn from Ana Laura: “Some women told me they already know they and their family should eat better so they were interested to learn more about healthy food .” With only 27.4% of the women at a healthy weight, it is safe to say there is still a lot of work to be done. Through the courses and by helping the families to start up their kitchen gardens and small agricultural businesses, the Fundación hopes that the indicator ‘nutritional food’ will soon be green. As for nutritionist Ana Laura, she will be back to see how the situation progresses. “In about 6 months, the volunteers and I will visit each family again and measure and weigh the women and children to see if their situation has improved.”
Written by Yolanthe Van Endert, Cerrito Initiative.
