The Recipe that Saved a Life
Thousands of infants in Ebonyi State, where Chinyere lives, come from families devastated by HIV/AIDS. More than 10 percent of children in the region are considered acutely malnourished, which makes children vulnerable to mental disabilities, infectious diseases and even premature death.
Chinyere, a two-year-old orphan from Nigeria, lost her mother to AIDS just three months after she was born. Adopted by her 72-year-old grandmother, Chinyere had a new home, but without access to breastmilk or milk substitutes, her life was still in danger as she lost weight and became malnourished.
Chinyere is far from alone. Thousands of infants in Ebonyi State, where she lives, come from families devastated by HIV/AIDS. More than 10 percent of children in the region are considered acutely malnourished, which makes children vulnerable to mental disabilities, infectious diseases and even premature death.
But there is hope. Chinyere’s relative Uchenna was able to get help from Health Initiative for Safety and Stability in Africa (HIFASS) – a USAID-funded project with technical support from Project HOPE that cares, supports and provides services to orphans and vulnerable children. Uchenna was trained on how to better care for her infant. She was given nutrition education and learned the importance of regular handwashing and other good hygiene practices. She was also taught good parenting skills.
And the caregivers have a secret weapon – a recipe called “Tom Brown.” It’s a highly nutritional diet for malnourished children made from easily available ingredients like maize, sweet potato, peanuts, crayfish and soy beans. Four weeks after Chinyere started using the supplement, she had gained nearly 10 pounds (4.5kg).
Once they get to know families with vulnerable children, caregivers can start to tackle other health needs, and can offer HIV testing, quality care and sustained antiretroviral therapy.
HIFASS has used its efforts to fight community malnutrition among vulnerable children as the entry point to provide HIV Testing Services (HTS) to households. So far, more than 104,000 orphans and vulnerable children have been enrolled in the project in Cross River and Ebonyi States and more than 40 percent have been offered targeted HTS.
Chinyere was among those tested for HIV. She happily showed no signs of being infected with the virus.