Since
1987 MAMA Project has been working in Honduras. We have
grown through the years and have been able to help MANY people
in Honduras. Here's a look at some of the work that is
done in Honduras.
Health/ Hygiene
Education
This is done at both the village level,
and also at our Nutriton Center in Honduras. We
have developed many of our own materials, and also use
material from parallel organizations such as the
Ministry of Health of Honduras, and the Hesperian Foundation
(e.g. "Where There is No Doctor").
Medical, Dental
and Construction Brigades
We promote
preventive rather than curative medicine in our medical
contacts with the communities. We want to find more ways
to equip the Hondurans whenever possible,
rather than being the primary providers of short-term
care.
Teams go
to Honduras to serve, but also to learn from
Hondurans. To prepare our teams for the experience, we
offer a series of Cross-Cultural Ministry Training
seminars. It is important for volunteers
to cultivate a perspective on service that is not
centered on themselves and their needs, but is truly geared to
the needs and desires of the people that we are
serving. Of course, as visiting foreigners, we are
always in for many surprises, but spending time preparing
our minds and hearts to become truly humble and open is
an important part of becoming good partners in this
work of love.
Deworming and
Vitamin A Promotion
Intestinal parasites cause an
enormous degree of suffering on a worldwide scale in
developing countries. Honduras is a prime example.
Deworming children promotes growth, and allows them to be more
successful in school. The cost is low (about 5
cents per dose) and the "cure" lasts for 6
months. We follow the Mininstry of Health Protocol,
using Albendazol. Vitamin A deficiency is a major cause
of blindness in Honduras. Less well-known is the role
that Vitamin A deficiency plays in creating an
immune-deficiency state in malnourished children, leading to
tremendous susceptibility to infectious disease. The
role of community education cannot be overstated, but
for the short-term, many programs, including MAMA
Project, have found the distribution of mega-dose (200,000 IU)
Vitamin A capsules to be an important intervention in saving
the sight and life of many children.
Medicines and medical
supplies have been generously donated by many pharmaceutical
companies, and are being used by local practioners and medical
teams to bring help to many who would not otherwise have the
benefit of such treatment.
AINC-I and AINC-II
Training for Community Leaders
An
important aspect of this work for MAMA Project is
the training of community leaders through AINC-I and II
trainings. Each of these trainings takes place on time
per year. Leaders are trained in general health
monitoring and treatment of malnutrition in
children. We train 2-3 leaders in each of the 60
communities where we work. We especially focus on the
villages from which severely malnourished children have come
to the San Francisco Nutrition Center.
Scholarship
Programs
We have a small number of scholarships
that we give to students in the San Francisco area.
Students that receive scholarships show their grades to our
staff director every quarter to show that they are using their
scholarship money
correctly.
