INMED-Brazil

Healthy Children, Healthy Futures, the cornerstone of INMED’s activities in Brazil, achieves meaningful, lasting improvements in the health of children, families and communities by:

• Treating children for preventable diseases and nutritional deficiencies;
• Teaching children about good nutrition, preventive health habits, and hygiene and sanitation measures that help prevent disease;
• Skills-based and self-esteem training for students, school personnel and other community members to multiply the effects of the program;
• Development of school and community gardens for nutritious meals and income generation;
• Improvement in water and sanitation conditions; and
• Strengthening the capacity of families and communities to sustain positive change.

These combined elements inspire and enable children to become powerful “agents of change” among their peers, families, and communities. Once children understand the causes and effects of disease, they enthusiastically share what they have learned with others by translating lessons taught through participatory activities such as songs and games into messages that entire families and communities can put into action.

In 2004, INMED-Brazil marked its 10th anniversary as a registered Brazilian NGO. With the ongoing support of its corporate, government and foundation partners, INMED implemented the Healthy Children, Healthy Futures program in 19 communities across eight Brazilian states, involving more than 100,000 children, as well as their family and community members, and school personnel in more than 450 schools.

During the year, Healthy Children, Healthy Futures documented the following accomplishments, among others:

• Treated more than 73,000 children for intestinal parasitic infection;
• Administered iron and multivitamin supplements to more than 14,000 anemic or borderline anemic children;
• Delivered oral hygiene kits and dental care education to more than 85,000 children;
• Trained more than 500 “multiplier” teachers, cafeteria workers and other school personnel—who then shared what they learned with their colleagues—in topics including preventive health, hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, food safety, clean water, gardening, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent sexual health, self-esteem, leadership, social responsibility and community development;
• Conducted weekly (or more frequent) educational activities in classrooms, schools and communities on the program topics listed above.

2004 also marked a major expansion of the Healthy Children, Healthy Futures program model into a new direction with the launch of Horta Brasil (Garden Brazil), a broad initiative to combat hunger and promote nutritional well-being and self-sufficiency for children and their families, in support of Brazil’s national Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program.

Through Horta Brasil, INMED and its partners—including USAID’s Global Development Alliance, foundations, and Brazilian and multinational corporations—are working to:

• Reduce hunger among approximately 100,000 of Brazil’s poorest children by increasing the availability of nutritious produce through school gardens and nutrition education for teachers, school cafeteria workers and mothers of school-age children;
• Improve children’s health and nutritional status by increasing their access to nutritious foods; treating them for intestinal parasitic infections that rob them of vital nutrients; treating them for micronutrient deficiencies that compromise their physical and cognitive development; educating them on good nutrition practices and preventive health, hygiene and sanitation; and increasing their access to clean drinking water; and
• Build the foundation for long-term improvements in the quality of life for families in the program communities by increasing food security and providing a potential source of income generation through the sale of surplus produce.

In pursuit of these goals, INMED conducts trainings on gardening and nutrition with teachers, cafeteria workers and community members, and implements hands-on gardening activities with the children. Produce from the gardens is used to boost the nutritional quality of each school’s midday meals—which for many children may be their only meal of the day.

Please visit www.inmed.org.br for additional information.