.

.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

An Eggcellent Solution to Protein Malnutrition!!!

First off, I apologize for the absolutely godawful pun I made, but it had to be punned done (I'll stop now).
Anyways, back to the MEAT of the blog post (okay I lied about the puns).
If you recall, I talked about the serious protein malnutrition prevalent among the children we examined in the health camp.
But there is hope to at least partially alleviate this protein malnutrition. Granted, it may be impossible to fully reverse the impacts of long term  protein malnutrition, but many of these kids are still growing, and increasing their protein intake substantially would help their mental and physical development.
Let's start off with the amount of protein the children are currently getting, 5 hard-boiled eggs a month (one every week, and one more, one Sunday a month).
Yes, 5 of these things
A large egg has about 6 grams of protein on average (according to the almighty Google), so this amounts to 30 grams of protein a month. Now certainly there are other sources of protein, such as rice and lentils. Rice has 5 grams of protein per cup, but rice protein is not a complete protein (this means it doesn't have all the essential amino acids you need), and needs to be combined with other sources of protein such as beans, meats, milk, and so on. Lentils are a good source of protein, but they aren't served to the kids in very substantial quantities.
Given those numbers, it's not terribly surprising that most of the kids examined in the health camp were suffering from  protein malnutrition. How do we solve this? How you might ask? Well, the (un)funny title of this blog post should give it away. In case you didn't figure it out, eggs! Here's how it works. Turns out that Parivarthana is already buying biscuits that are given to the kids as snacks every evening. These are your bog standard biscuits, there's nothing amazingly nutritious about them.  Per day, it is costing 4 rupees per child.
 Here's the kicker: The solution was right there in front of us! We calculated quickly, one egg costs  3.5 rupees, but let's highball the figure so that the eggs and biscuits cost the same. We convinced  the hostel warden, Mr. Shivakumar ( his name is also Shivakumar) to replace the biscuits with an hard boiled egg for snack.  Actually, boiling the egg takes little effort and can be done at the hostel.
This means that each kid gets to eat an egg every day of the week and given how we taught them the need for more protein in the health camp, they are very motivated to eat the eggs. The kids will go from receiving 5 eggs a month to receiving roughly 30 eggs a month on average. That's a six-fold increase, and a massive (though as of yet unquantified) increase in protein intake for those children. Keep in mind eggs contain complete proteins, unlike rice: this nutritional value, combined with cost effectiveness and ease of access, make eggs an ideal tool for combating protein malnutrition where we are working.
But all this might seem to beg a question. Why wasn't this being done before? After all, this is a very simple solution.The answer, once again, is the lack of knowledge.
 The staff was unaware of the protein malnutrition problem prevailing in children at their hostel. So, they did not think of replacing the biscuits with eggs. It really is that simple. Just goes to show the power of education.
Next time, we'll look at the nature of change with regards to activism! Big, broad topic, but we've learned a few things in the field and in literature that we feel are important to emphasize.
Sincerely,
Adarsha

Monday, October 7, 2013

My Thoughts on Summer 2013 Health Camp Results

After publishing our story about the summer health camp, I decided to share my thoughts reflceting the results to the readers.
        There was a near universal trend of moderate to severe protein calorie malnutrition among the children: in fact, only four of them were healthy and normal. The manifestation of the protein malnutrition was evident in the distinct lack of muscle among many of the children, as well as seriously stunted growth.While rural population near Hunsur aren't the tallest or stockiest of people, some children were exceptionally tiny despite their age.
         One may wonder as to why protein malnutrition is so prevalent here, the answer lies in the lack of knowledge. The hostel warden, a knowledgeable man himself, didn't really know the importance of getting enough protein in the children's diet. This lack of knowledge regarding proper nutrition (and the consequences of a lack of nutrition) is very common in rural India. Further compounding the lack of knowledge is the vegetarian diet prevalent throughout a substantial portion of India.
         This vegetarian diet can be due to religious reasons or due to the expensive nature of meat (for poor villagers). Regardless, little protein is present in the diets of a substantial number of rural Indian children.
Now, moving on from serious protein malnutrition...
Another affliction found to be present was scabies, a contagious skin infection that is persistent in the hostel. Scabies mites, which cause the skin infection, thrive in humid environment.  At the time of camp, five to six kids had it, and it was not an uncommon issue. The children stigmatized their fellows who were infected with scabies. Thus, any afflicted kid would try as long as possible to conceal evidence of the infection, having the unfortunate side-effect of increasing the chance of transmitting scabies to other children.There's good news though: treatment is available and given whenever children are found to have scabies.
       One common issue in India (and other developing countries) is parasitic worms, which have serious negative impacts on children. Luckily, deworming treatment is given in the hostel, and India has been testing several deworming campaigns in various parts of the country  with some degree of success.
       But not all medical issues are capable of being addressed in the hostel. One such issue is anemia. Anemia can seriously impede children (and their study habits), and oftentimes the iron intake among rural children is not sufficient. In our health camp, we did come across anemic children To combat childhood anemia, the Indian government issues free iron supplements for children in the 5th to 10tt grades. However, beyond that, iron supplements must be paid for, which is not an option at this hostel.  Teenagers in 11th and 12th grade do not qualify for free, government-provided iron supplements; however, none of them are able to afford the medication. so for the time being, they must try and supplement their iron intake by some other means.
        However, there was one anomaly: one child,  an 8th grader is eligible for three more years of free, government-provided iron supplements. Yet for some reason, he was not taking them. This was surprising news to us. Upon asking him why, we found out that he simply didn't know why to take the pills. This was also a bit of a shock, for two reasons: one, we figured that the children were being provided at least basic information  as to why to take the pills, and two, we figured that the kids wouldn't really care about the reason and just take the pills anyways.
       Turns out that rural children want to know what's going on. On the plus side, once we told  him how anemia and the iron supplement pills worked, he had no qualms with taking them-he just had no reason to earlier because he had no knowledge.
      You might be seeing this recurring theme of a lack of knowledge seriously affecting the well-being and potential of these rural kids. But that's no reason to lose hope! In fact, there's a very simple yet stupendously effective way to remedy one big issue-protein malnutrition-that will be discussed in the next blog post! Stay tuned to see what we're proposing!

Sincerely,
Adarsha

Summer 2013 Health Camp for Indigenous Children at Parivarthana Rural Hostel

We launched a new program: Health  Camp, as a part of Global Call to Youth (GCY). This idea was on our mind from past 2-3 years ever since we observed  common problems such as protein calorie malnutrition and lack of personal hygiene among the rural children. We chose Parivarthana Youth Hostel for indigenous children as our first site.
This place is not new for us. We have been working with these children from past 3 years. In fact they have participated in our 2012 Solar Energy Project and 2010- Adopt a Rural School program sponsored by Ashoka Youth Venture. As usual, the children were very excited and happy to see us!
We conducted a personal hygiene workshop, physical exam followed by pediatrician's  well child check up.
The most fun part was the hands on personal hygiene workshop. We taught them the importance of personal hygiene in preventing communicable diseases.  we demonstrated how simple acts such as hand washing and keeping the nails short and clean are easy and effective.
We distributed nail cutters to the children for their personal use. They were very happy to own a nail cutter! We showed them how to cut their nails.
It was soon time for their physical exam. We worked with the hostel warden. we also had enthusiastic student volunteers from the hostel!

Then it was time for the check up from the pediatrician. The students were very cooperative, and excited.
After the examination, the pediatrician had a meeting with us and the hostel warden. We were dealing with some expected health issues among the children. Two common problems: protein calorie malnutrition and skin disease scabies. In addition, some children also had anemia.
Okay, the first part was easy, finding out the problem. Now comes the hard part! What is the solution? How can we help? First, we had to analyze the problems in hand. Yes, conducting personal hygiencne workshop was important but it was not enough! Stay tuned to read our thoughts in our next blog post!
Apoorva and Adarsha