The Rotary e-Club of Houston is proud to announce that our first shipment of boxes to Barquisimeto, Venezuela have arrived! These boxes contained materials and supplies for the implementation of the pilot project ‘Deworming Venezuela’.This program aims to implement a mass deworming strategy to reduce the state of malnutrition associated with intestinal helminth and protozoan infections in school-age Venezuelan children. And why start with deworming you may ask?
A study from National Bureau of Economic Research (https://www.nber.org/papers/w22382.pdf) estimated that the average weight gain per dollar expenditure from a Mass Drug Administration (MDA) is more than 35 times that from school feeding programs. Why? Because parasites rob children of the few essential nutrients they may be consuming from feeding programs.
As we move along with this project, we are also seeing an urgent need for adequate access to hygiene in public spaces, such as schools and hospitals. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an imminent risk because schools and hospitals do not have adequate access to clean water and soap. We are looking at the possibility of donating a small Electrolyzed Water System that can generate hypochlorous acid for cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, with only salt and water!
If you are interested in participating, please contact our President Elect, Dr. Isis Mejias
or
DONATE HERE: https://www.mightycause.com/story/Prbtcf
In the name of the "Deworming Venezuelan" team, we want to thank all the contributing donors that have made this possible so far. Watch this video to learn more about this exciting project!