Nutrition

Mizak Clinic - In July 2009, a clinic was opened in a separate rented facility for our community health initiatives. Yollande Zephir is a full-time health worker at the facility, which is opened a minimum of 30 hours per week. She will help to administer the Medika Mamba program, do blood pressure screenings, and limited diagnostics. HAPI will also offer health seminars, pilot a co-fortified salt program in relationship with the University of Notre Dame and host medical teams in this faciility. Research is being done on maternal delivery practices and causes of the high mortality rate that we can use for future healthy mom and baby care.

Medika Mamba - Nutritional intervention with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to severely malnourished children under the age of five helps to ensure that children remain well-nourished and healthy through the toddler years, giving them a chance for normal growth and development into adulthood.

Medika Mamba is an energy dense peanut butter, significantly fortified with protein and nutritional supplements. The name Medika Mamba means “peanut butter medicine” in the Haitian Creole language. It is manufactured in Haiti.

HAPI utilizes community health workers trained in the protocol to dispense the mamba in the home, training the families in proper dosage, chlorinated water treatment and basic hygiene measures to reduce / eliminate diarrheal diseases in the child that deplete their bodies of nutrition. Families come to the clinic once weekly for weigh-ins and documentation of progress.

This was a 2008 pilot, under the direction of a US volunteer. Beginning in July 2009, HAPI hired full-time health worker, Yollande Zephir, to oversee the program. HAPI has a separate clinic facility and we will have three month rotations of approx 15 children per rotation on the protocol. Part-time health workers will be hired on an ‘as needed’ basis for the mamba administration.

This initiative supports HAPI’s mission for healthy communities, job creation for poverty reduction, and gender equality with the cultivation of primarily women health workers.

Health Seminars - In the spring of 2009, HAPI offered instruction on a variety of hygience and health topics for the community. The seminar was entirely Haitian led by a Haitian-American pre-med student and local leadership. Specific training was offered to 12 community health workers on patient intake and taking vital measurements, such as blood pressure, health training has included a seminar on co-fortified salt to introduce iodine into the local diet and prevent lymphatic filiarosis, as well as training in hygiene, hand washing and clean water. HAPI has also hosted seminars in dental care and women's issues, including 'family planning beads'. We plan to expand the topics offered and the frequency of seminars in the future and incorporate lessons into the Peace Pals program.