By Dr. Pasquine N. Ogunsanya | Executive Director and Founder
“Good nutrition plus ART equals high-quality, prolonged life. Without good nutrition, ART does not work effectively.”
This statement by one of Alive Medical Services (AMS)’s clinicians proved true at AMS, where we witnessed malnourished clients stagnating even while on treatment. This is what prompted AMS to rehabilitate malnourished clients by providing food and income-generating gardening opportunities. During our bimonthly Food Days,7 kg of rice, 7 kg of beans, and 1 kg of sugar (all worth $25) are distributed to each client, benefiting an average of 1,500 clients monthly! The resources for these services would not exist without your generous donations, and for that, we are thankful.
Our clients are very grateful for your life-changing support. Julius is one such client who lost his job due to his chronic malnutrition that caused the paralysis of his left side. Soon enough, he could no longer afford the city-life in Kampala, and moved back to his village in Jinja. Fortunately at this point he was referred to AMS, through which he began receiving food for six months in addition to HIV treatment. Within these months, he gained weight and control of most of his left side. “AMS really helped me during a time when I thought I was going to die,” says Julius. He continues to exercise in order to return to work as the respected carpenter that he once was. These success stories are why our nutrition efforts exist, and we are overjoyed for clients like Julius.
Among our achievements, a remaining challenge is our inability to afford Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) for severely malnourished clients. RUTF is the single most important product for malnutrition because of its easy storage, ability to be consumed immediately, and incredible nutritional benefits for clients. The World Health Organization (2016) states: “Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) has revolutionized the treatment of severe malnutrition – providing foods that are safe to use at home and ensure rapid weight gain in severely malnourished children.” The Last time that AMS provided RUTF was in May, and the demand was so high that supplies ran out in one week.
With RUTF, we can expand our cutting-edge nutrition services which are critical to comprehensive HIV care. Our mission is to continue our nutrition programs while making RUTF a reality again at AMS in order to transform the thousands of lives in need. With your generous donations, we can together champion this urgent mission. If you register for a monthly recurring donation, you can consistently impact our work, making our services sustainable.
Thank you for your continued support, and we are confident that with you and GlobalGiving by our side, we can better the health and nutrition of clients at AMS!
Sources:
"How RUTF Works." Food For Famine. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2016. <http://www.foodforfamine.org/who-we-are/how-rutf-works/>.
"Malnutrition." World Health Organization. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2016. <http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/child/malnutrition/en/>.
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