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BRAZIL - INMED, a nonprofit development organization dedicated to improving health and quality of life worldwide, teamed up with Monsanto Brazil and Monsanto Fund in early 2000 to implement Healthy Children, Healthy Futures. Now entering its third year, the partnership has the potential to boost health, hygiene and sanitation for 25,000 children in seven Monsanto facility areas in Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goias and Bahia states. “Monsanto Fund has been a real partner for INMED, visiting the sites, making a great effort to understand the different realities and looking for ways to improve them,” says INMED Brazil Director and INMED Vice President Joyce Capelli. Healthy Children, Healthy Futures is customized for each community. But it’s based on INMED’s intervention strategy called Children as Agents of Change, which focuses on children’s real abilities to motivate others and make positive changes happen among their peers, families and communities. The strategy starts with treatment for intestinal parasites, other preventable diseases and nutritional deficiencies. “Many activities happen before and culminate with treatment day,” Capelli says. “So, it is in fact a celebration of all our efforts and also a beginning of the next step: prevention not to get reinfested.” The biannual deworming sessions are followed up with education. The children learn the importance of washing their hands, as well as fruits and vegetables, while drawing posters, planting gardens, playing games and singing songs. Armed with knowledge, the children put their lessons into action, in their neighborhoods and beyond. In Santa Helena, for example, students from an agricultural school passed out vegetables from their garden along with a pamphlet they wrote about good nutrition — including recipes. And on the town’s birthday, the parade featured a float with the theme, “How to prevent parasites.” Long before one child receives a deworming treatment, INMED has worked long and hard to win the trust of the community. The process generally requires months of meetings and focus groups to work through officials’ and families’ attitudes about health, hygiene and sanitation, which frequently are a combination of science and superstition. Synergy is a good word to describe the process, Capelli explains. “It’s very important that everyone involved interact and integrate to make Healthy Children, Healthy Futures work,” she says. “That includes local government, other nonprofit organizations, school staff, parents, community members and the children.” The results can last a long time, as the children grow up, raise their own children and enjoy vital, significant lives. knew the dangers of poor sanitation and careless hygiene. They learned all about it in school as part of INMED’S Healthy Children, Healthy Futures program supported by a Monsanto Fund grant. |