Public Health Interventions

The summer of 2006 was the start of the public health interventions for the Quito Project. A medical doctor who volunteered for the Quito Project saw a critical malnutrition among the people in San Martin and suggested an intervention to improve diet and nutrition in the community.

Upon arrival in Quito, we conducted a nutritional needs-assessment in the community and decided to start community nutrition classes focusing on three elements:

First, the better understanding of basic food groups was essential. The food pyramid was explained in parts with multiple examples of nutrients that are consumed in this specific community.

The second element of this class was to introduce and share affordable, nutritious cooking recipes. Adriana Oña, the director of our partner non-profit in Ecuador, La Fundacion San Martin, introduced some recipes according to her nutritional expertise and good understating of the community. Also, soy beans were introduced to this community from Dona Fani, a community member who did not have an opportunity to share her expertise before.

The third element was community building. One of the objectives of the nutrition classes was to identify the available resources in the community and empower the community to learn from each other and develop a healthier diet.

The nutrition classes started in the summer 2006 and continue year-round. Adriana Oña leads these classes when The Quito Project is not present in Quito. Classes are organized once a week for two hours, one hour to learn about food, and the other hour to put into practice what they learned in class and cook affordable, nutritional food.

In the summer of 2007, the public health team plans to expand to include sex education classes to improve the health in the community by promoting disease prevention. The sex education classes will be planned as much as possible prior to arriving in Ecuador, with the understanding that we will need to conduct a needs assessment prior to making any decisions regarding our interventions. We also plan to assess the interest in attending advanced nutrition classes in Quito among the frequent participants of the nutrition class. If there is a strong interest we plan to offer scholarships to three to four community members and empower them to lead the nutrition classes. All projects will be carried out in close collaboration with the social work team and La Fundacion San Martin.