Working with other organizations to decrease malnutrition and poverty

Today we went to the Diocesis of Chulucanas for the Primer Encuentro Interinstitucional por el Desarrollo Humano Integral ( the First Inter-agency Conference on Integral Human Development). The organizer of the conference, Bishop Arturo Purcaro, hopes that by bringing groups together with similar goals more can be accomplished. It was a great opportunity to see the work that is being done in the area by other non-profit organizations that are focused on improving people's lives.

Richard and I waiting for the conference to start.

We traveled on to Frias where we met with the students of the nursing school there. The Institute for Self Reliant Agriculture (SRA) is partnering with the school to teach the rural villagers good hygiene and nutrition. The students went out and did an initial assessment of the habbits, health and nutrition in the rural areas around Frias. They have been trained how to teach these principles and have been given teaching materials. They will teach the families with a series of lessons. When the program is finished the survey will be done again to measure the acceptance and implementation with each family.

The students showing off their new hats that they will wear as they go to teach their lessons

They are excited to partner with SRA in this project. To show their appreciation and enthusiasm they put on a program for us where they sang songs and danced traditional dances. They are a talented group. Their performance was very fun.