Nutrition Workshop

By Andrew Richards (Project Officer - Care) and Cherricha Jacobs (Desk Officer & Social Manager) in Jamaica

Did you know that in your lifetime, you will eat about 70,000 meals and 60 tons of food? Can you imagine if these are unhealthy foods and what effect it can on our bodies? Well, those were enough thoughts to convince parents, volunteers and caregivers to turn up at our Nutrition Workshop on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at the Ridgemount United Church in Mandeville. The theme was “Nutrition: Your key to good health”. There were twenty-four participants; two males and twenty-two females. This included placements, parents on the Parenting Project, volunteers and partners.

The main objectives of the workshop were:
1.To sensitize placements about proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle
2.The importance of nutrition for the growth and development of children
3.Preparing cost-effective meals for children and adults

The main presenter, Marsha Woolery, Nutritionist/Lecturer from Northern Caribbean University (NCU) gave a sterling presentation entitled “Nutrition for the Child at All Ages”. She captured the participants’ interest by giving them real scenarios and asking them questions. Her presentation highlighted the need for food; its importance, causes and effects of bad versus good nutrition; nutrition of the infants as it relates to development of their cognitive skills, motor skills, digestive system; nutritional needs of the young child, pre-adolescent, adolescent and elderly. Ms. Woolery emphasized the need to have balanced meals from the six food groups and the functions of the different nutrients.

After Ms. Woolery’s presentation, participants appeared to be “fully-loaded” with information evident by many questions which were bounced at her from everyone. Parents wanted to know at which stage babies should be weaned and the importance of breastfeeding. Caregivers asked how they can make food more attractive for the children and how to provide a balanced meal on a “meagre” budget.

Participants having “consumed” all that information they were now placed into three groups: 2-6 years, 6-12 years and 12-18 years to plan a menu for one day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Easy task – yeah right! Each menu should consist of foods from the different food groups. Participants were eager to get started as they got busy putting their ideas on paper. The laughter and chatter that echoed in the room were an indication that participants were coming up with creative meals. After twenty minutes, these “future nutritionist” having “digested” the information from the presentation were still bubbling with ideas and so the allotted time had to be extended by ten more minutes.

Time up!! Time up - Signaled the end of the group discussion. It was now time for the group presentations. The first group up was the 2 - 6 age group. For breakfast, they were going to prepare scrambled eggs with sausage, wheat bread, ripe banana, orange juice, water and oats porridge. For lunch they decided to “dish out” crushed potatoes, sardine, sliced tomatoes, fruit punch, slice of melon. It was decided for dinner they would have that vegetable rice, chicken strips, tossed salad and fruit salad.

–The second group was the 6-12 age group. For breakfast, they would prepare oats porridge sweetened with sugar and cows milk (low fat); eggs with sausage; bread, ripe banana and orange juice. Lunchtime it was baked chicken with rice & peas, mix vegetable (carrot, string bean, green pea), lettuce, water and sliced melon. After that heavy lunch, they decided that for supper it would be cream of pumpkin soup; corned bread and cheese with water.

- Now it was time for the 12-18 years old group. They would have for breakfast cornmeal porridge with low fat milk, boiled egg, egg sandwich made from brown bread with lettuce and tomato, ripe banana, a cup of cherry juice. For lunch, Rice & Peas, steam fish and butter, steam mixed vegetable (cabbage, carrot, cucumber, string bean, corn); orange juice. For supper, they would have soup made with chicken, pumpkin, carrot, cho-cho, irish potatoes, yam), melon and water.

Groups were commended for their efforts but were reminded that they need to ensure that the colours of their menus should be balanced – avoid too much of the same colour! Main points which participants took away from the workshop were:

1. Breakfast was the most important meal!
2. Eat Breakfast like a king; Lunch like a queen and Supper like a pauper!
3. Healthy eating helps children to grow, learn and develop!
4, Healthy eating reduces the risk of chronic diseases and conditions!

At the end of the workshop, participants commented that the workshop “was excellent, need more like this”; “presentation was informative and good”; “we need more of these workshops especially in the early childhood schools”. Overall, participants rated the workshop as an “A” – very good workshop!!

Special thanks to Anouschka van den Ban who was the first volunteer to donate funds towards the new Nutrition Programme in Jamaica. Anouchka spent one month in Jamaica volunteering at the Our Lady of Hope Child Care Facility in August 2009. The Nutrition Programme aims to build the capacity of placements and volunteers on healthy lifestyle practices, assisting in making placements more sustainable by encouraging gardens and working with different partner agencies to promote healthy living in communities. If you would like to contribute to this programme you may contact the Projects Abroad Jamaica Office. To all our volunteers who participated and those whom provided feedback geared towards this workshop, thanks! Thanks to everyone for making this workshop a success - parents, placements, Northern Caribbean University and Projects Abroad Jamaica!

Kids in Nepal (Courtesy of Alice Symonds)

By Harry Kent, Programme Advisor - UK

Being on the road one of the questions that always comes up is money and “How can I fundraise for this type of project?” I always reply with the same ideas for sponsored sporting events, writing to local councils, and even the odd cake sale. Unlike Alice Symonds I had never thought to approach the university and write a creative piece for their website.

By writing an account of her time away Alice earned herself the funds to travel to Nepal on a Teaching project.

To hear what she had to say log on to:

http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/318/international-study-17/student-profiles-288/profile-alice-symonds-work-experience-in-nepal-2315.html

Nepal (Courtesy of Alice Symonds)

By Will Harper, Director - USA

We profiled Louis Berger-Mole’s time on a movie set in Ghana while he was simultaneously a Sports volunteers in Accra on this blog last December but no one seemed to know when his movie would come out. But it appears to have finally been released! The film is titled “Festival of Love” and the plot revolves around “what happens when a man of God falls in love with a dreaded goddess”. I would urge you to watch the trailer it is amazing for so many reasons.

Have any recent volunteers in Ghana caught this movie?

Volunteer at Ciudadela SEDEGES

By Daniela Viljoen, Director - Bolivia

Ciudadela SEDEGES is a state run orphanage that we have been working with since 2002 (previously known as Alejandro Magno) and Care volunteers are needed here all year round especially between December and March.  The state only provides funding for the salaries of most care workers for 10 months; March through to December. Last year they had two out of ten members of staff stay on with a paid salary and another two of the remaining eight who stayed voluntarily (with no pay for three months). When this situation occurs, the children are left at the orphanage without any sufficient adult supervision. This has been happening every year, even before we began supporting the orphanage full time. In addition to this, it is the summer vacation, so the children are currently not in school.

There are other members of staff, for instance, the Director, Psychologist, Social Worker and cook, who are also on a fixed payroll. However they struggle to manage the 10-15 children in each home (a total of six “casitas” – homes) and everything that comes with managing a home (cooking, cleaning, bathing, ironing, washing, and controlling the little ones). The staff also have their own responsibilities and therefore there is insufficient time spent on the children.

Freddy Mita, who is our Care Supervisor in Bolivia, is currently working on a Ciudadela Summer Plan of activities and tasks that volunteers will be able to take part in. This will run alongside the daily chores of running the home such as cleaning, bathing, washing clothes and so forth.

Now, we need volunteers to help! So…keep us in mind!

Click Here to learn more about the Care program in Bolivia

For anyone that has traveled to Ghana, you will certainly have spent hours upon hours in tro-tros or shared taxis which are the main form of public transportation. This is a great video of an obruni (foreigner) who worked as a money collector or “mate” on a tro-tro in Accra.

By Laura Gent, Assistant Manager - Fiji

Flying across to Fiji from Auckland, I saw what I had expected- crystal blue waters, beautiful blue skies and some real picture postcard islands.

One of the islands from the sky

Having just come from Ghana, where the people are unfailingly friendly, I was happy to find that the Fijians are equally as welcoming, and that they too, work according to a thing called ‘Fiji time’ meaning that the attitude is just as refreshingly laid back..

Two weeks in Fiji, and I am beginning to get to know my way around the little town of Nadi, so different from the big city of Accra. Here, there is definitely no shortage of things to do in the evenings and at weekends. The volunteers have sussed out the best night spots and at the weekends there are some excellent trips to the surrounding paradise islands where they can scuba dive, sky dive, dance with the locals or simply just soak up the rays.

Volunteers live with either Indian-Fijian families or native Fijian families who are incredibly welcoming. I was unsure of what to expect food-wise here but I have been totally spoiled with curries and plenty of fish dishes. Apparently they are fattening me up so I return home ‘like a local Fijian’… I was also intrigued to find that as well as eating with their hands Ghana style, Fijians eat a dish consisting of cassava and yams- no fufu in sight though unfortunately! As for my beloved sachets of Ghanaian pure water, I am now getting used to drinking bottles of ‘Fiji water’, fresh spring water shipped over to Hollywood and sold to actresses for about £10 a bottle……

Fiji Water

Our teaching and care placements are excellent with volunteers working in an orphanage, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and a special needs centre. I was so impressed at the warm atmosphere in these places. The children, just like the Ghanaians are not camera shy! I am also astounded at the popularity of rugby here. They are fanatical- just like the Ghanaians are about football. Instead of football shirts dominating the markets and shops, the native Fijians are seen wandering around in rugby jerseys. I love telling them that it originated in a small town in England and I spent one evening watching Fiji play Tonga, where I saw the skills of a certain player named ‘Kinky PooPoo’. This was definitely one of the highlights along with a Fijian wedding which I went to on my first weekend via tro-tro style bus with no ‘mate’, which was disappointing as I certainly wasn’t able to shout ‘bus stop’ at the driver.

Fijian Wedding

I would strongly recommend a visit to Fiji because as it is beautiful place and a very friendly nation. Although I still miss Ghana and its endearing qualities, I am really looking forward to getting to know this little island which has a lot of potential and I am looking forward to meeting the new volunteers arriving in the next 4 months. Watch this space for more updates.. Vinaka!

Performance at the QUIERO OIR!!! ROCK 100% COCHABAMBINO

By Daniela Viljoen, Director - Bolivia

Working with Projects Abroad, the spirit of volunteering is always there, whether it be doing a project alongside our volunteers, or helping a noble cause for a friend of a friend. This past Saturday, Cochabamba held a concert, QUIERO OIR!!! ROCK 100% COCHABAMBINO, in benefit to help a little girl raise funds for surgery to repair her hearing.

Alejandra Estrada, Projects Abroad Bolivia staff member, helped to organize the entire event along with a group of friends and 6 rock groups who participated in the event; Terapia, Mammut, Oil, Vitamina Queso, A Pie, and Cartel Afónico, all rock bands from Cochabamba! After a month of planning, this Saturday 2:00pm came along. We all offered to help with anything we could.

The concert was held at the outdoor Olympic Beach Volleyball courts. It was a perfect day (of the usual in Cochabamba) to say the least. The sun was bright and the setting set for an awesome Rock concert! Volunteer Justin Gouin helped set up some of the tents, and Alejandra and I got to work the best job ever… manning the beer stand. We became expert servers by the end of the night. Carmen, Ximena, Ana Silvia and volunteers showed their support by head banging and jumping to the music, and enjoying the delicious food and drinks.

Everyone who worked at the concert, along with the bands supported 100% voluntarily! By 10pm it was time to hit the after party….(to keep raising funds….of course!) Hopefully this will become an annual event to help different causes…and just maybe Ale and I will get to work the beer stand again! ROCK 100% COCHABAMBINO!!!

Rob, Rob’s beard and Faye

By Will Harper, Director - USA

Unlike myself who hates to run more than 3 miles at a time, Rob Kidd and Faye Stickings (aka Kiddstick) from the UK office of Projects Abroad will be running the Istanbul Marathon on October 18th and fund raising on behalf of the CT Scanner Appeal for Worthing Hospital. They have raised over 1,000 Pounds so far but I am sure they would love any support you would be able to give. You can learn more about why they are running and can donate on their JustGiving page. Good luck guys!

Turtle digging a nest

By Stuart Timson, Conservation Director - Projects Abroad

This report from Taricaya will bring you all up to date on what has been happening over the last couple of months. Personally, I went on vacation for a couple of weeks and with some major overhauling going on at the centre time has flashed by and so I shall report on the last eight weeks together. As usual my dilemma is where to start with so many projects advancing and the hard work of everyone involved with the project producing such fantastic results.

Nonetheless, I would be remiss not to begin with the completion of the collection phase of the turtle project. Despite fluctuating river levels, freakish cold weather and an increase in poacher activity we have smashed our record for nests and eggs collected. You may well recall how the collection got off to a very slow start with just two nests in July. The female turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) were unable to lay as weather conditions were very unfavourable and whilst we understood they would have to lay eventually it was a great surprise to everyone that we finished August with 77 nests transferred to our artificial beach and an astounding 2400 eggs. This is a true reflection of hours spent camping and walking the beaches, often in unpleasant conditions, and I must thank everyone for their hard work on this project. This huge total could have been even greater but one night a group of poachers beat us to a cluster of 9 nests, more by luck than planning, and so our total could have been higher still. With a potential haul of close to 90 nests on the same beach we have been monitoring for several years now we must ask why more turtles are laying their eggs here every year. It is an intriguing phenomenon because the first baby turtles we released back in 2005 have yet to reach sexual maturity and in a couple of years one would expect a marked increase as these youngsters return to lay their first clutch on the beach where they first entered the river; but why are more turtles appearing every year on our beach?

Goldminers

I believe that the answer lies in an increase in small-scale gold mining in the area. As more and more people struggle to make a living in and around Puerto Maldonado the continued high price of gold makes mining on whatever scale more attractive. In reality, to start extracting gold all one needs is a small set of machinery and a boat, whilst the numerous beaches in the lower Madre de Dios River are unclaimed sites waiting to be tapped. The miners themselves will not ignore laying turtles as their eggs are an extra income or source of food but it is the 24-hour activity with loud machines that is scaring the female turtles away from the beaches. This year we were forced to ask two separate rafts to move on from our beach and this is further indication of increased mining in the area. With increasingly few untouched beaches our site is becoming a haven for the pregnant turtles and it begs the question what would they do if we were not working in the area? In conclusion, our turtle repopulation project becomes ever more crucial to the survival of this species locally and we can only expect more and more nests as the turtles are presented with fewer and fewer beaches upon which to bury their eggs. This coupled with the imminent reproduction of our first releases means that next year will surely see yet another record broken!

Another first at Taricaya was the official release of three residents from the animal rescue centre. As you will recall, since becoming an official rescue centre we have been unable to liberate any animals as the government struggled to formalise the release protocols. After continued banging on doors and numerous proposals we finally got the green light to go ahead and release two coatis (Nasua nasua) and a Spix’s guan (Penelope jacquacu). After blood work and behavioural analysis the animals were deemed healthy and ready for liberation and so the government official responsible for the permits was invited and with great pleasure we took the animals deep into the reserve and returned them to their natural habitat. Over the years, releasing animals back into the wild has given me great satisfaction and now that we set a precedent I look forward to many more releases and a better dynamic in the centre as residents come and go more frequently.

Spix’s Guan

Another positive from these releases was the freeing up of enclosures and as we restructured our animal distribution we have been able to separate a set of enclosures for our small felines, a larger enclosure became available for our macaws and a cage has also become available for our group of small spider monkeys. The three young spider monkeys were joined by a fourth juvenile female this month and as they continue to grow and recuperate we shall be looking to move them form the quarantine cages into this larger enclosure so they start to bond as a secondary group that can eventually be integrated with our group of 4 sub-adults. The liberation also meant that we were able to receive new residents and apart from the fore-mentioned spider monkey we had two firsts for us arrive over recent weeks. The neo-tropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) is becoming increasingly rare with increased fishing activities in the rivers causing mortalities in nets and competition for food and so the young male that arrived last month was a surprise to all of us. The youngster became an instant hit and is already running around his enclosure and happily chasing fish we release into his pool. The second arrival is a very unusual one as the red-masked parakeet (Aratinga erythrogenys) is resident in the north of Peru and is not found in Madre de Dios. One can only assume that its arrival in Puerto Maldonado is a reflection of the pet trade ripe in the northern Amazon region of Peru but its release will pose a problem as it will be destined to a solitary existence. We shall have to push for a transfer to its natural dry mountain forests for release as and when the time comes.

September saw a breakthrough with the butterfly house also as the government came to inspect it. The instant approval means that as soon as the paperwork ploughs through the system we shall be able to begin working with our three test species and release them for breeding into the large enclosure. In parallel our permanent butterfly traps have enabled us to capture many new species for the reserve and whilst I do not have the exact total at the moment as some individuals are still being processed for identification, I estimate that we are well over 130 species for the reserve.

Many of you who have visited us over the years will have slept in our huge two storey dormitory block but eight years of jungle storms and wear and tear means that it had to be torn down and replaced and so this month we have been slightly disrupted as the building was taken apart. Materials have been reused where possible and next month will see the completion of a new series of rooms each sleeping four people but with the luxury of private bathrooms. This will take our capacity to 40 volunteers at any given time and create uniform living accommodation for everyone. Whilst maintenance and safety were the primary reasons for this change we need to continue to grow as volunteers for 2009 have surpassed all other years and with over 170 volunteers visiting us this year the future indeed looks bright for Taricaya and all that we are trying to achieve.

October will bring us the first heavy rains of the new wet season; the hatching of our first turtle eggs; preparation for the transfer of our adult spider monkey troop to the pre-liberation area deep in the reserve and much more… until then!

Click here to learn more about the Dentistry Program in Argentrina