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Mujer y Comunidad SFL

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Latin America & the Caribbean

Mujer y Comunidad SFL

Project Coordinator:
Zoraida Soza Sanchez

Project Overview:
Members of Mujer y Comunidad (San Francisco Libre, NICARAGUA) work to improve the quality of health care to women and children by producing and selling natural medicines and educating women about basic healthcare for both themselves and their children. The project was established in 1998 and has grown steadily in the number of people it serves since that time. Recently, the women of Mujer y Comunidad have had success in bringing their products to the national market in Nicaragua, which increases their earning potential and allows them to do more community education initiatives. This project served as inspiration for women in Zaragoza, El Salvador, who formed their own cooperative after meeting and learning from the women of Mujer y Comunidad.

Recent Accomplishments:

• Dissemination of nutritional risks of children and pregnant women

• Health promoters strengthened their knowledge of nutrition and natural medicine.

 • Mothers have better knowledge of the effects of malnutrition

• The Community have accessible natural medicine and they use it.

Number of People Directly Served by Project:
200 children under the age of 5 who receive nutritional check ups and medicine, 80 mothers of the children who participate in workshops, 19 women who are natural medicine and nutrition health promoters, 12 women from Colectivo Mujeres Unidas

Number of People Indirectly Served by Project:
2365 family members of the beneficiaries

Goals for 2010:

• To take the first steps toward the holistic development of the youth and adolescents of San Francisco Libre.

 • To promote the food security and education, and provide security for the surmounting situations of violence and sexual abuse of the youth and adolescence.

IPM Funding Goal for 2010:
$5,000

Community Impact:
Gloria is a women who can barely read, mother of 4 children, and is one of the most active and recognized promoters in the community. She has her two youngest children in the program and she is very happy because while helping her own children she is helping other children of the community with registering their weight and height, making sure that they do not become malnourished. She organizes when the medicine is going to arrive and waits for all the women and children to come. She also encourages the mothers to help out at the trainings.

How your donation may be put to use:

$44 provides a nutritional evaluation for one child

$130 funds four meetings for 20 women to produce natural products, including medicine, soaps, and shampoo