My New Job

I am working as the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for two different organizations, The Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti (CNP) and Deep Springs International, both based in Léogâne, Haiti. Below I have written some specific information about each organization for those of you who are interested. During my time here (I am currently on a 6-month contract), I will be working on organizing both program's monitoring and evaluation systems, assisting with monthly reporting, finding ways to disseminate the work of the organizations (i.e. writing abstracts for conferences, etc), serving as research coordinator (overseeing student researchers and finding new organizations to partner with to conduct research involving our programs), and organizing many other specific projects for each organization. I am really excited and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to return to Haiti and work.



CNP (http://www.cnphaiti.org/) is the same organization I worked with when I was here in late July/early August conducting a needs assessment. They have worked in Haiti since 1998 and run a community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) program. As part of their CMAM program, they run a stabilization center for children who are severely malnourished and have medical complications, provide outpatient care for children who are severely malnourished, and run supplementary feeding programs for children who are moderately malnourished. Their work is focused in the rural areas of the Leogane Commune and rely on the work of their community nutrition workers, monitrices.









Monitrices are trained in point of use water treatment, family planning, STI prevention, danger signs for obstetrics, malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, infant and young child feeding practices and anthropometry. The monitrices screen children to monitor growth, identify and refer malnourished children to CNP's programs and implement breastfeeding support groups in their communities. The core program of CNP is called Positive Deviance Hearth (PD/Hearth). Positive deviance inquiries are done periodically in communities to learn from caregivers with healthy children, what specific care and feeding practices are being used that despite being located in a resource poor setting, allows their children to remain healthy while other children are not. For example, it might be that mothers of helathier children add coconut milk to the rice, or that even though the family only lights the cooking fire once a day, they divide the child's meals into three parts and feeds them three times a day instead of one, allowing the child to absorb more of the nutrients. The results of the PDIs are incorporated into CNP Hearths where caregivers of growth faltering or moderately malnourished children are invited to a 10-day Hearth session. Monitrices work with participants to make nutrient and calorie dense meals and educate the family on nutrition and healthy practices. CNP has expanded tremendously since the earthquake and are serving an invaluable role of educating, preventing and treating malnourished children.



Deep Springs International (http://deepspringsinternational.org/) runs a household chlorination program called Gadyen Dlo (“Water Guardian” in Haitian Kreyòl) with beneficiaries in the North, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Western region of Haiti. They focus on what is called point of use water treatment, meaning providing products to treat water so it is microbiologically safe to drink as well as providing safe storage for the water at the point of consumption, in the home. Even if homes have access to a clean water source, the water can become contaminated in the home. For example, despite collecting clean water, families may keep the water in an open container in the home with a cup to scoop the water out. A family member such as a child, may not have washed their hands before reaching into the bucket to scoop out the water and consequently contaminates the water used by the entire family.

Therefore, households in the Gadyen Dlo program utilize a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and tap and add a capful of locally produced sodium hypochlorite solution to water stored in the bucket. Gadyen Dlo has a network of water technicians (including the CNP monitrices) who prepare and sell the solution, educate new and existing users, visit users’ homes to test for chlorine residual, and maintain sales records. The GD program is sustainable by relying on the sales of the locally produced hypochlorite solution to cover portions of water technician salaries. They have done tremendous work not just in Leogane, but also in the communities where they are expanding throughout Haiti.