The St. Boniface Hospital in Haiti has launched a new program that will provide malnourished children with much needed vitamins and nutrients.  We are now making and distributing Akamil, a nutritional supplement, to children in our nutrition program.  The compassion and generosity of an anonymous donor has made this possible.

Akamil is a cereal blend that has been made and used in Haiti for more than 40 years. Akamil is made from beans and grains that are milled together to produce a high protein cereal product.  It is cooked like a hot cereal to supplement the nutritional intake of children and is currently being used in nutrition programs in other parts of Haiti.  Akamil is a well-known and accepted food supplement in the community.

We have roughly 100 malnourished children enrolled in our child nutrition program.  These children are identified as being moderately or severely malnourished by our physicians and our community health workers and are referred to the program.  They come to the hospital twice a month with a parent or caretaker, meet with the community health nurses, get weighed, participate in an education session and receive a snack.  They receive dry rations to supplement the entire family's food at home, feeding a total of over 400 children.

We have not seen the weight gains that we would like to see with these children and are launching the Akamil program to help.  There are several reasons for the low weight gains.  The rations we give are enough for a family of five because we know sharing takes place.  If all of her children are hungry, a mother will give the food to all of them and not just to the child who is underweight. Sometimes the family is much larger than the rations allow for.  We also know that even though the rations are meant to only supplement the food at home, sometimes they are the only food the family has.  This is particularly the case recently with the food crisis and the hurricanes.

To produce the Akamil, a grain mill is used to grind the corn and beans that are in the mixture.  We will purchase as much of the food supplies locally as possible to help the farmers in our region.  The parents and caretakers will provide the labor for running the mill and bagging the Akamil.  It is important for the recipients to participate in the project because it gives them a sense of ownership and self-sufficiency.

It is our hope that we will see significant weight gains in the malnourished children receiving Akamil and that with this success, we will be able to expand the production of Akamil to include our other programs and even more children, creating healthier, happier families.