TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS

Helping malnourished children.

Project Results

Our criteria for success - We measure success very simply, by how many children we help actually recover from malnutrition, i.e., how many achieve widely recognized standards for acceptable size and weight.TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS is a narrowly focused non-profit corporation that concentrates on measurable results in the field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There have been several projects using ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) during the last few years.  The following have had the greatest influence on us.  Each of these projects owes much of its success to effective partnerships among groups with differing talents and a common goal.

 

Malawi – For several years Dr. Mark Manary has been testing the effectiveness of commercially (French) produced ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) at his research site in Blantyre, Malawi and publishing his results.  More recently he has been testing the effectiveness of equivalent RUTF produced locally in Malawi, as described in an August St. Louis Post-Dispatch news article.  At his invitation, TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS is training rural people to produce the food supplement right in their own villages without fuel or electricity.  We are also experimenting with a new formulation from Dr. Manary that uses soy in place of milk powder.

 

Haiti – Several years ago a group of volunteer health care professionals called “The Haiti Mission” established a small clinic at Tovar, a town near Cap Haitien on the north coast of Haiti.  One of those volunteers, Dr. Pat Wolff, a Washington University in St Louis colleague of Dr Manary, then initiated a project to make and distribute RUTF in Haiti.  She purchased  a grinder and training from Compatible Technology International (CTI) and several volunteers from CTI built solar ovens to roast the peanuts.  In early 2004, over 200 children were being treated.  The project, described in a CTI brochure, is still operating in spite of the recent political turmoil and floods.

 

Bangladesh – Based on the success of the Haiti project, CTI supported another Therapeutic Toddler Food project in Bangladesh, in partnership with the LAMB (Lutheran Aid to Medicine in Bangladesh) Hospital and Friends of LAMB, a Twin Cities organization.  Unusually severe monsoon flooding has delayed that project but Steve and Dr Nancy Laible expect this to be operational in 2006.  Much of the planning and preparation of training materials has already been accomplished.

 

TODDLER FOOD PARTNERS plans to continue using this successful process, forming partnerships with other groups who share our goals and complement our capabilities.  We will continue to measure and report our success simply by the number of toddlers who recover as a result of the work of these partnerships.