CRISPAZ Volunteer Wendy Shelly is a nutritionist working
in the community of Guarjila, department of Chalatenango.
A group of five women cluster around listening animatedly
as the group leader reads a short story written by a local
missionary entitled, Why is Little Carmen Malnourished?
The women chuckle and some flush as the story paints the
picture of their lives: a young mom, abandoned by several
husbands, is left to care for five children by herself.
Now that planting season has arrived, the mother is forced
to leave the children in the care of her oldest daughter,
who is nine. Baby Carmen’s diet of breast milk is
abruptly replaced by a diet of beans and tortillas. When
mom arrives home exhausted in the afternoon, she is full
of guilt so she scrapes together her last few pennies and
gives them to the children to go to the corner store for
a soda or some other “treat.”
The women in the group see the picture of Carmen’s
swollen belly and skinny arms and quickly identify some
of the causes of malnutrition that they have been learning
about: “Carmen still needs breast milk. Couldn’t
her mom express milk and leave it for her in a bottle?” “They
have so little money, they should buy fruit or something
else with it rather than soda.” “How can one
person care for so many kids? Maybe she should check with
the clinic about family planning.” The causes they
identify are true. Poverty. Poor food purchasing choices.
Early weaning. Families too large for their resources.
Then the story takes another turn. The local priest, a
stocky European man, visits Carmen’s family one afternoon.
Carmen’s mom has made chicken soup. The priest and
the oldest son are served first, each Drawing of Carmencita
receiving a large chicken thigh and some vegetables. What
is left goes to the rest of the children and the mom. For
Carmen this means a little broth and a bone to suck. “Is
this what happens in your family?” we ask. Traditionally
fathers and older sons eat first, and the rest of the family
gets whatever happens to be left. A few protest quickly
that they stopped that practice years ago. But a few others
nod that it is true. One woman offers that she was always
taught that the broth was the most nutritious part of the
soup anyway, so she thought she was doing a good thing
for her child. Others nod. Do they really believe this?
How can a little flavored water compare to a chicken leg,
full of protein, iron, and calories? Or do they really
know better, but choose to believe it in order to ease
the guilt of starving their children in the face of a machista
system that they are powerless to change?
Poor intra-family distribution of food resources. A fancy
way of saying that kids often get the short shrift in the
food budget. The women add this to the list of causes of
malnutrition, and we begin to discuss how we can educate
ourselves and our neighbors so our kids grow up healthier.
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