Medika Mamba

After having to send three patients to a re-feeding program at the community hospital 45 minutes away, we sat down to re-evaluate our ability to really help the community when it comes to malnourished and starving children. We are lucky that most of our patients are eating at least once per day; most have access to food 2-3 times per day though quantity is limited. We are not usually seeing the sickest of the sick though if we were capable of implementing the re-feeding program here children who might not be able to make it all the way to the hospital might have access to proper care. Dr. Sarah did some research and emailed the people in charge of the Medika Mamba program here who have said they would be happy to come and train us in how to properly re-feed severely malnourished children. This is one more huge step for us in being able to help the community attain and maintain health!

Medika Mamba (www.mfkhaiti.org) is a local organization started by an American Pediatrician to provide ready to use food (RTUF) to treat malnourished children. The program is great as it uses local Haitian resources and provides jobs for Haitians as well by creating a sustainable company here in Haiti (it’s a win-win-win). It is essentially a peanut butter, vitamin, mineral and oil mixture that is designed to provide maximum calories, fat and carbohydrates in the appropriate ratios to re-feed sick children. One of the many things I am learning here is that it is tricky to re-feed children who are severely malnourished. There are specific techniques and proper ratios as well as a strict schedule that must be followed. This makes sense though as the body has been starved for so long that the introduction of too much food too quickly can send an already sick child into a downward spiral. We are very lucky to be able to learn from the people at Medika Mamba and hopefully become a resource for families living in our area as well as the other surrounding villages. This fits in perfectly with our desire to begin community gardens and create sustainable food sources for our community here. With the success of our garden I know we can make an impact on the health and nutritional status’ of our patients and friends here. There may even be a possibility of giving some a source of income if they can grow food not only for their families but also enough to sell at the market (another win-win).

So many new projects on the horizon! As always I am happy to be able to be a part of this great venture and am learning so much everyday about medicine, life and building relationships with others. I am continuing to work on my Haitian Creole as well so I can hopefully communicate directly with patients and people I meet in the community!