I need donations to buy food for prepartum women living at the albergue (an the overnight house by the hospital) while they wait to go into labor. The pregnant women at the Albergue have been fairly receptive to my “charlas” on nutrition during pregnancy, infant and child nutrition, breastfeeding, and family planning methods. However, the woman who stay at the albergue are in extreme poverty and they often comment to me that they do not have enough to eat and that they are hungry. The woman are interested to know what they should be eating during pregnancy, but have difficulty acquiring the foods that I discuss in my talk. For about 500 lempiras (a bit less than 30 American dollars) I can buy the women a food or two from each of the four groups that I discuss as being especially important during pregnancy during my weekly “‘Que debe comer durante el embarazo?” charla. During my talk I mention the importance of calcium, protein, iron, and folic acid. I will be able to buy the women enough cheese, powdered milk, eggs, beans (and rice), avocados, and peanuts to last about a week. I would like to set up what will essentially be a little miniature WIC clinic here in La Esperanza. I can tell the woman what they should be eating, and then give them a food from each group. The women can prepare the foods themselves over the out-door stove and will receive practice in consuming foods important to a healthy pregnancy. While these woman are in the later stages of pregnancy, the food and nutrition information will still be extremely valuable. Most woman here take prenatal vitamins only during the first 6 months of their pregnancy. Those are the most important months to take the vitamins and it allows the women (and government programs that try to help support them) to save money. So the woman in the albergue are generally not taking prenatal vitamins, so receiving extra nutrients in their diets is especially important. Further, if I am able to impress upon them the importance of receiving these nutritents during their pregnancy, they may be more likely to consume these foods during the earlier stages of their next pregnancy. They will also be able to share this information with other women back in their villages. Another important advantage of this program is that providing food for the women at the albergue will encourage other women to come to stay at the albergue before giving birth, and this will help to lower extra-hospital maternal mortality.
The Albergue kitchen.
The first week of food donations
So, I am asking for your donations. Just $30 dollars will provide enough food for me to bring in each week. If you are interested in making a donation, please click on the button below.
A weeks worth of food, thanks to your donations
Working with community high school students
high school students leading condom demonstration
Distribution of family planning education
I provided a first little donation, let me know if you got it all correctly.
peace,
Dan
Yippie it looks like I get to be your first full months sponsorship. Happy birthday. I am glad my gift can help your quest to help.
Pero, soy pobre tambien, y ahora tengo un poco hambre. No obstante, sólo estaba bromeando.
Back to a language that I can handle better. Are you sure there’s no legal issues with seeking donations? Not that anyone who sees this page is likely to care, but it might be something good to know about for the future anyways.
Jon,
I have accepted all sorts of donations for all sorts of things in the past and there haven’ t been any sorts of legal issues. People are just giving me money and I am buying food for other people with it. I am not an official non-profit however, and I do not have a tax ID number. Which is probably an important thing for everyone to know.
That’s kinda what I was wondering. I figured it was probably fine to do as long as no one was getting a tax deduction, no different then if you were just receiving gifts or something. I just wasn’t sure.
Anyways, on an unrelated note. So in English, if I wanted to tell you was I was doing actively or was about to do I would say, “I am running to the store,” and I’d have “to be” serve as the verb. I would never conjugate “to run” unless I was describing a habitual thing, “I run to the store every Sunday.” But in Spanish, if I wanted to say, “I am kidding,” which is in fact something I wanted to say a few minutes ago, I’m not sure I did it right. If I were a native Honduran would I have said instead, “bromeo,” rather then busting out the gerund?
I just donated to your pregnant women. You should use my $30 to make them burgers.
Erin,
I don’t have money to donate at this point, but I am interested in what you are doing. I am a teacher in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I also teach Infant Massage and am interested in becoming involved in teaching and helping pregnant and parenting Mothers here in Honduras. I am not sure were to start. I am also currently working on becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator. Please let me know if there is anyway I can volunteer or a way to reach out to other mothers in or around Tegucigalpa.
I think this is really amazing what your doing all my thoughts and prayers go out to your orginazation…