MFK Blog
Posted by admin
1212 days ago
Dr. Pat Wolff and others from the Meds & Food for Kids team are on the ground in Cap-Haitien, approximately 150 miles north of Port-au-Prince. They’ve been providing regular updates via email on their efforts to get Medika Mamba into the hands of those who need it most. On Thursday, Steve Taviner, MFK’s Operations Officer, shared news of their first trip to the quake-ravaged capital city.
“We managed to make our first trip to Port-au-Prince since the disaster. I hitched a ride in an ambulance from the Haiti Hospital Appeal along with Carwyn Hill from the Baptist Convention of Quartier Morin and two other volunteers. Almost every day, this group has been making the 20-hour roundtrip from Cap-Haitien to take food and medical supplies to orphanages outside of the main aid efforts. We set out at 4 a.m., reaching the Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) depot in central Port-au-Prince by 11:30 a.m.
Driving through downtown, the devastation was overwhelming – the entire city resembles Europe after WWII. Roads are beginning to be cleared and the survivors are carrying on with their lives, but the remaining population lives in tents, on the streets, and depends on the minimal medical and emergency food and water stations scattered through the rubble.
Finding one's way is bizarre, as all physical landmarks have disappeared. We drove by the Ministry of Health where, prior to the quake, MFK would participate in monthly nutrition meetings. The entire building had been razed.
Photo showing the remains of Haiti's Ministry of Health.
Arriving at the MFK depot, our building was miraculously untouched, and still secure, but the neighbouring school had collapsed. The stocks of Medika Mamba survived, though they took a tumble. Our Depot Manager, Mr. Louis Gerard Papillon, was hit by falling concrete, and is being treated for injuries in Miami.
MFK's depot (right) was unscathed while the adjacent school was destroyed.
Before we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we spent a week of frantic and difficult coordination and arranged for our client organizations to send trucks and meet us at the depot to collect the urgently needed Medika Mamba. Again, by a miracle, all showed up. Within two hours, a volunteer and I managed to load over 3 tons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food into three vehicles.
Steve Taviner, preparing for client organizations to come pick up Medika Mamba supplies, hangs the MFK sign on the outside of the depot. School debris on right.
GHESKIO, a hospital normally specializing in HIV treatment, but now an emergency site for over 4000 patients, took 420 kg; Children's Nutrition Project of Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake, picked up 1600 kg (enough to treat children and pregnant mothers for over one month); MFK and Carwyn then took over one more ton of Medika Mamba to two different orphanages, and to the Hôpital Petits Frères et Soeurs St. Damien on the outskirts of Port au Prince. The hospital, next to the U.S. embassy, has been converted into the main transfer site of the many hospitals and orphanages in Port au Prince destroyed by the quake. Dr. Rodriguez, a volunteer in emergency medicine from the University of Wisconsin, took in the supplies and showed us around. He explained that the hospital is receiving more than 10 new children requiring emergency care per hour.
Dr. Rodriguez, a volunteer in emergency medicine from the University of Wisconsin, points out delivered Medika Mamba at the Hôpital Petits Frères et Soeurs St. Damien.
The team arrived back in Cap Haitien at 11 p.m., and is planning further trips the coming week to ensure that Meds & Food for Kids’ contributions to relief efforts continue.”
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1212 days ago
To read the story at the Washington University website, click here.
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Brown School professor survives Haiti earthquake
Shifts focus to preventing further public health disaster
The Record
By JESSICA MARTIN
jessica_martin@wustl.edu
January 26, 2010
Two days before the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Lora Iannotti, Ph.D., nutrition and public health expert from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, traveled to Port-au-Prince and Leogane, Haiti, to continue her research about undernutrition and disease prevention in young children. The massive tremor changed her focus from research for the future to survival, with her team helping children in the aftermath of the quake.
On Jan. 15, Iannotti, who has been working in Haiti since 1990, was evacuated back to the U.S. “I started to focus on the major public health aftershocks of the earthquake,” she says. “If we think carefully now about what this phase will bring, many more lives will be saved.”
Iannotti says that there are some immediate actions that can be taken to prevent more lost lives and protect livelihoods.
“Priority should be given to sufficient supplies of both drinking water and water for washing, and to optimal sanitation conditions for the prevention of diarrhea,” she says. “Oral rehydration therapy and zinc should be widely available to help those who succumb to diarrhea to recover.
“Care should also be given to the kinds of foods delivered to people, ensuring that not only basic energy needs are met but also micronutrient nutrition is addressed. Ready-to-use supplemental and therapeutic foods like Medika Mamba in Haiti are dense in both calories and micronutrients and resistant to bacterial contamination, and consequently, should be used for preventing undernutrition and recovery from severe malnutrition.”
Medika Mamba is a nutrient-rich mixture of peanuts, sugar, oil, vitamins, minerals and powdered milk made locally with locally produced ingredients. It is distributed in plastic containers for families to feed their children at home and can be stored for several months. It is typically given to children between 6 months and 5 years old. After starting to eat the ready-to-use therapeutic food, children start to show visible signs of improvement about 1-2 weeks. The cost of six weeks of treatment — enough to return a child to health — is less than $100 in U.S. currency.
Patricia Wolff, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, provides Medika Mamba, or peanut-butter medicine, to malnourished children in Cap Haitien, Haiti, on the north coast, through her nonprofit organization, Meds & Food for Kids. Wolff, who divides her time between St. Louis and Haiti, returned to Cap Haitien soon after the earthquake to oversee the continued production of Medika Mamba.
Public health realities in Haiti
Deaths due to diarrhea were already high in Haiti, but with the earthquake there is tremendous potential for increases. “One-quarter of Haitian children are stunted with low height-for-age and over one-fifth are underweight with low weight-for-age,” Iannotti says. “We know now with certainty that undernutrition predisposes children to dying from infectious disease, especially diarrheal diseases. Being underweight doubles a child’s risk of death due to diarrhea, and for those severely malnourished, this risk increases by 3.4 to 9.5 fold.
“Sanitation conditions and access to clean water will deteriorate and increase the risk of cholera outbreaks and acute diarrhea and dysentery from E. coli, salmonella, and other pathogens,” she says.
According to Iannotti, another pre-earthquake statistic foreshadows more silent public health menaces. In Haiti, over 70% of children less than 2 years are anemic; nearly half (46%) of women of reproductive age are anemic.
“Anemia in developing countries usually results from a lack of iron in the diet, parasitic infection including helminthes and malaria, and chronic inflammation,” she says. “Blood loss also causes anemia. Anemia can have many short- and long-term health and livelihood consequences, such as compromised cognitive and physical development in young children, poor birth outcomes in pregnant women, and in severe cases, increased risk of mortality in certain populations."
Education and socio-economic development are vitally important over the long-term
The health and well-being of Haitians will depend on long-term commitments to improving public health problems such as nutrition, education and poverty reduction.
“One of the most difficult scenes to witness the morning after the earthquake were the fallen schools,” she says. “Most immediately, it was hard to imagine their descent and agonizing to both see and imagine what lie beneath. Now, with some distance and time, I am also reflecting on what this means for the later phases of this crisis. In a country where one in five people receive no education at all and only 40 percent make it through primary school, the implications of even more lost education is depressing.
“Education is linked to every positive health and livelihood outcome. Restoring these buildings and creating educational opportunities must be a priority.”
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1213 days ago
Dr. Pat Wolff and others from the Meds & Food for Kids team are on the ground in Cap-Haitien, approximately 150 miles north of Port-au-Prince. They’ve been providing regular updates via email on their efforts to get Medika Mamba into the hands of those who need it most following the quake. Over the weekend, Steve Taviner, MFK’s Operations Officer, told us these two stories, and shared some pictures.
Medika Mamba sent by ambulance from Cap Haitien to Port-au-Prince Orphanage
Carwyn Hill, from the Baptist Convention of Quartier Morin, took 200 kg of donated Medika Mamba on one of his daily trips from Cap Haitien to Port-au-Prince for an orphanage he had identified with urgent needs.
The orphanage had lost its building during the quake, and five children and two staff died in the disaster. When Carywn arrived at their relocated site on Friday morning, there were 70 children with one day's food left. Medika Mamba was a welcome sight.
Medika Mamba delivered to Sacre Coeur Hospital, Milot
Last week, the team took 200kg of Medika Mamba out to the hospital in Milot, a city near Cap Haitien. This hospital is serving as an overflow trauma center for quake victims. Patients are arriving from Port-au-Prince by U.S. military helicopters or by car.
Picture 1: A patient is rushed from a helicopter across the courtyard of a school converted into an emergency hospital in Milot, near Cap Haitien.
Picture 2: Steve unloading Medika Mamba to a Haitian boy scout volunteer for use in Milot hopsital.
Picture 3: Medika Mamba being taken to storage.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1214 days ago
Professor works to feed Haitian children's greatest needs
At her Kirkwood home, Dr. Lora Iannotti has her hands full keeping score with three kids of her own. But for the last 20 years, she's been working to improve the scores of thousands of Haitian children who have fallen off the charts when it comes to nutrition.
Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1215 days ago
The Des Moines Register featured MFK and Des Moines-native Tom Stehl in an article in Tuesday's newspaper.
To read the story at the Des Moines Register website, click here.
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Iowan at St. Louis nonprofit helps nourish Haiti children
Des Moines Register
By REID FORGRAVE
rforgrave@dmreg.com
January 26, 2010
Let's be clear: There's nothing good about the situation in Haiti. But disaster can bring opportunity — and that's where Tom Stehl comes in.
The 31-year-old graduate of Des Moines Hoover High School and Drake University works for Meds and Food for Kids, a St. Louis nonprofit founded by a professor of clinical pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine of St. Louis.
Its goal: Save the lives of malnourished Haitian children. Its method: Medika Mamba, an energy-dense superfood, translated in Haitian Creole to mean "peanut-butter medicine."
The food is central to a program aimed at lifting Haitian children out of a malnutrition epidemic that's long plagued the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It has the consistency of honey and the taste of peanut butter. It's made of peanut butter, sugar, vegetable oil, milk powder and a vitamin and mineral compound.
Meds and Food for Kids produces 6,610 pounds a week in Haiti. The amount is enough to treat some 300 malnourished children; it is distributed regularly to health clinics across the nation.
The organization also encourages long-term development by using raw materials - mostly peanuts, which are grown by the poorest of Haiti's poor - from small-scale farmers, and by using Haitian labor.
"Part of my heart is there, and it's hard not to be on the ground, but this is an opportunity for us to get the story out when people care about Haiti," said Stehl, operations coordinator for the nonprofit.
Stehl has visited Haiti 20 times the past two years.
"After these numerous waves of crises hit Haiti, we have to ask where to go from here, and how the country can even start to rebuild itself," he said. "This can be a centerpiece of that answer."
Process begins when child goes to clinic
Here's how the program works: The parent of a malnourished child takes the child to a health clinic. Nurses take the child's height and weight and determine whether the child should be admitted.
The child gets Amoxicillin and an anti-worm drug called Albendazole, then is sent home with 6.6 pounds of Medika Mamba. After two weeks on Medika Mamba, the child returns for a check-up, then is given more Medika Mamba.
The process continues until the child reaches proper height and weight.
The program has grown rapidly. The program has reached 13,000 malnourished children since 2004. In 2008, some 4,000 Haitian children were put through the regimen, then another 5,500 in 2009.
That's not much, Stehl said.
"There are hundreds of thousands of malnourished children in Haiti, and we strive to reach them all," he said. "For children who are so unfortunate to have fallen into the pit of malnutrition, it's just awful."
When the earthquake struck, the nonprofits' stateside administrators wondered about how their operations in Haiti stood.
Overall, Meds and Foods for Kids came out relatively unscathed. Its 5,000-square-foot facility, about 150 miles north of Port-au-Prince, was fine, although the supervisor was injured when a wall fell on him.
But a container with $80,000 worth of raw materials for Medika Mamba was in a Haitian seaport when the earthquake hit. The container was lost - a big deal for an organization with a $500,000 annual budget.
Suppliers pledged to replace the materials free of charge, and now Stehl is working on getting the materials into bordering Dominican Republican, across the damaged roads of Haiti, and to the production facility.
Nation is among least-developed
Malnutrition was widespread in Haiti before the earthquake.
Haiti is one of the least-developed countries in the world, ranking 149th among the world's 182 nations, according to the United Nations Human Development Index. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 58 percent of Haiti's 9 million people are undernourished.
Stehl knows the earthquake will likely make the malnutrition picture in Haiti a bit darker.
Meds and Food for Kids is currently working on a relationship with the Seed Science Center at Iowa State University to research peanut seed varieties that could better work in Haiti's poor soil, and the organization is hoping to expand its Haitian operations. It had embarked on a $1.5 million capital campaign before the earthquake to build a larger production facility.
But the point isn't just saving individual lives in Haiti by pumping malnourished kids full of nutrient-dense food. Meds and Food for Kids aims to ensure the next generation of Haitians has less of a societal problem with malnutrition.
That, Stehl knows, is what takes work.
"It's not food aid," Stehl said. "We have to keep in mind the kids this is targeted to, the severely malnourished children between 6 months and 5 years. We're not dropping this stuff out of an airplane."
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1215 days ago
St. Louis Business Journal reporter Kelsey Volkmann published a post on her blog today about Meds & Food for Kids. Wednesday's Oprah Winfrey show featured footage from one of MFK's videos about malnutrition and Haiti. To read the full posting, click here.
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Film Shows Meds & Food for Kids in Haiti
St. Louis Business Journal
Kelsey Volkmann
January 21, 2010
If you caught the Oprah Winfrey show Wednesday, you saw footage from a documentary shot by local filmmakers about Dr. Patricia Wolff’s Meds & Food for Kids and its work to combat malnutrition in Haiti.
Documentarians Lori Dowd and Frank Popper have headed back to the poor island country to continue filming their movie about St. Louis-based Meds & Food for Kids and its efforts to help earthquake victims.
In early 2009, Dowd, vice president for program development at Avatar Studios in St. Louis, approached Wolff, a pediatrician in private practice and associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, about shooting a documentary on the organization’s distribution of Medika Mamba, an enriched peanut paste. The ready-to-use therapeutic food not only helps starving children but also puts Haitians to work, including 65 farmers.
In March 2009, with a travel allowance of $5,000, Dowd and Popper traveled to Haiti and shot 50 hours of footage over the course of 10 days.
The production team at Avatar spent two months and about $60,000 in donated work and resources to make a short documentary that will be used to raise money to complete the film. Avatar’s senior editor, Scott Betz, edited the 10-minute short, and Avatar’s sound designer, Jim MacMorran produced the soundtrack.
In the movie, Wolff examines a 12-month-old boy who weighs only 11 pounds. “It’s really almost 100 years ago here,” she says.
Wolff is currently in Haiti, along with volunteer Steve Tillery, a senior member of law firm Korein Tillery, part of Meds & Food for Kids' disaster response team. The peanut paste is the “very best thing for children,” Wolff says in the film. “It’s bringing them back from half-dead.”
Watch the documentary here.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1217 days ago
The St. Louis Post Dispatch featured Meds & Food for Kids on Friday, January 22nd. Not only is the "weather good", as Dr. Wolff says in the article, but MFK is producing Medika Mamba in its Cap-Haitian factory.
To read the story at the St. Louis Post Dispatch website, click here
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St. Louis nonprofit works to feed Haiti victims
Haiti Dispatch
Doug Moore
Friday, Jan. 22, 2010
At the Meds & Food for Kids factory in Cap-Haitien on Haiti's northern coast, founder Dr. Patricia Wolff of St. Louis is seeing the devastating effects of last week's Port-au-Prince earthquake make their way in her direction.
Cities that escaped quake damage throughout Haiti are playing host to hundreds of victims who arrive in need of food, shelter and medical care. Cap-Haitien, about 80 miles away from the epicenter in Port-au-Prince, is no different.
"I just had a visit from a Baptist minister who says he has 39 kids with kwashiorkor (malnutrition from lack of protein) about 10 miles from here," Wolff, a pediatrician, said by e-mail on Thursday. "I will visit in the next day or two."
Wolff, a professor of clinical pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, founded the nonprofit Meds & Food for Kids in 2003 and has been in Haiti since Sunday overseeing production of Medika Mamba, a mixture of peanuts, powdered milk, oil and vitamins. Demand for the product is spiking, she said, as victims struggle to find food. Medika Mamba can be served out of the container without any preparation.
On Thursday, two truckloads of Medika Mamba were sent to a Baptist mission and to St. Damien Hospital outside of Port-au-Prince, as workers at the factory made another 1,100 pounds for distribution.
"But we're running out of boxes and have to fix the car before it will tolerate the trip all the way to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) to pick up the boxes," Wolff said in a message sent from her iPhone.
Wolff, who generally splits her time between Haiti and St. Louis, will likely extend her two-week stay well into February.
Wolff said that today, she will visit a gymnasium where some of the victims have been relocated and talk with the mayor about needs.
"On the plus side," Wolff said, "the weather is good here."
Donations to Wolff's nonprofit can be made through the website, mfkhaiti.org, or by calling 314-420-1634.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1218 days ago
As predicted, the second wave of this crisis is hitting Haiti. While the epicenter of the quake may have been near Port-au-Prince, the after-effects are putting an incredible strain on the entire country. Dr. Pat Wolff and others from the MFK team are on the ground in Cap-Haitian, approximately 150 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Their updates share a story of streets teeming with refugees, a lack fuel, no electricity and no services for the hungry.
"They are shipping thousands of earthquake survivors from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitian," Pat Wolff said in an email. "Cap-Haitian's soccer stadium has now become a refugee camp. I've never seen anything like this in my career."
Yes, we have challenges (the now-destroyed port perhaps being the biggest), but the heart of our day-to-day operations remains the same. Just as we did before January 12, we’re working with the local farmers to source our peanuts, we’re manufacturing the Medika Mamba in our Haitian plant, and we’re getting our product into the hands of our partners and saving the lives of malnourished children. Because we believe that “business as usual” (if there is such a thing after an event like this) is key to Haiti’s recovery.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1219 days ago
Dr. Iannotti, Washington University Assistant Professor of Public Health, was in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck to promote a research study with Meds & Food for Kids. She survived “by chance alone.”
Dr. Iannotti documents her experiences—-and the ensuing public health crisis—-in an op-ed that was released today. She mentions the imperative to get Medika Mamba in the hands of Haiti’s swelling ranks of malnourished children.
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Haiti's darkness could dawn a brighter future By Lora IanNotti
01/21/2010
By chance alone, I survived the devastating earthquake in Haiti. I happened to be eating an early dinner with colleagues at a patio restaurant instead of in our guest house, which was leveled.
I was in Port-au-Prince and rural Leogane, also ravaged, to conduct research on malnourished young children. After the quake struck, our small team of nutritionists made our way to Doctors Without Borders to help dress wounds, fill syringes and make cardboard splints for the broken bodies of thin children with frightened, vacant eyes.
Instead of imagining their futures in strong, well-nourished bodies, we could only wish for their survival.
That's still my dream — and one we can achieve if we also see this tragedy as an opportunity to rebuild lives and Haiti, where I've lived and worked over the last 20 years.
In my view, this crisis will unfold in three distinct phases. The first, of acute emergency care, is over; 70,000, perhaps thousands more, did not survive.
The second, which we're now experiencing, is driven by basic needs for clean water, food and shelter. Many more will not survive this phase, even as humanitarian workers labor around the clock, since Haiti's infrastructure nearly was non-existent before the quake.
The final phase will be a crisis of public health — both my area of expertise and my deepest concern.
By preparing for this crisis now, we'll save the lives of several thousand young Haitian children and alter the life prospects of hundreds of thousands more.
Prior to the earthquake, one in four children was stunted and one in five was underweight. We know with certainty that these forms of undernutrition predispose children to infectious disease mortality, especially diarrhea. Being underweight doubles the risk of death from diarrhea and, in severely malnourished children, increases the risk by three- to nine-fold. Haitian children also suffer from inadequate zinc nutrition, which is critical for recovery from diarrhea. Sanitation conditions and access to clean water are deteriorating rapidly in Haiti and heightening the chance for outbreaks of cholera and other forms of acute diarrhea and dysentery.
Anemia is another major public health concern in Haiti: roughly two-thirds of children, and nearly half of women, are anemic.
Anemia in developing countries usually results from a lack of iron in the diet, parasitic infection, including helminthes and malaria, and chronic inflammation. Anemia leads to compromised cognitive and physical development in young children, poor birth outcomes in pregnant women and, in some severe cases, increased risk of mortality.
The night after the earthquake, we slept in an open field in Leogane along with Haitian families, many of whom were lamenting the loss of Mardi Gras celebrations and the closing of their schools.
I had seen devastated schools, trying hard not to imagine what lied beneath the rubble, but that night I realized that this, too, was a public health crisis.
Anyone working in public health knows that education strongly correlates with every positive health and livelihood outcome. Only two in five Haitian children graduate from primary school, while one in five receives no education at all. But that was before the quake, before their schools were felled.
What can be done? We must improve sanitation and, of course, ensure access to clean water for drinking and washing to prevent diarrhea. Those who succumb to diarrhea should receive oral rehydration therapy and zinc. Foods provided should meet both basic energy and micronutrient needs. Particularly promising is ready-to-use Medika Mamba, a peanut concoction manufactured in northern Haiti that is dense in both calories and micronutrients and resistant to bacterial contamination, making it ideal for preventing undernutrition and recovery from severe malnutrition.
Over the long term, we must persist in our efforts to improve nutrition, vaccinate, de-worm, prevent infectious disease, promote education and reduce poverty in Haiti.
Thanks to the superb efforts of the U.S. embassy and military, I was able to return home. My experience in Haiti last week is beyond description, an unspeakable horror. But what terrifies me more is that the world will forget this small, already desperately poor country as it now faces the exponentially worsened problems of public health.
Like the tireless, unheralded Haitian doctors and nurses I briefly worked alongside, let's make a commitment to stay with them through many more dark nights to come — and through the dawn of their historic opportunity to thrive.
Lora Iannotti is an assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. She also is a scholar at the University's Institute for Public Health.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1223 days ago
MFK founder and executive director Dr. Pat Wolff is on the ground in Haiti. She and the rest of the MFK team are providing a clearer picture of the humanitarian crisis unfolding after the quake. Just today we were included on an email that Steve Tillery, long time MFK supporter and volunteer, sent to friends and family.
…I am in Haiti now. Things here are not really describable. Refugees from Port au Prince are pouring into Cap Haitien by the thousands. There is no fuel for planes, no electricity and no services for the hungry. Buses and trucks from Port au Prince are lined up hundreds at a time waiting for fuel to return for more refugees. The streets are swarming with people. When I got off of my plane over the weekend I handed a small bag of food to a desperate looking little boy who was begging. Within seconds literally dozens of little children came out of nowhere and ripped the bag to pieces as they clamored for something-anything- to eat. Chaos reigns.
We are among the fortunate – our facilities are unscathed and our staff is safe. Not only will we continue our work to cure malnutrition, we will ramp up our efforts. Our work is more important than ever.
However, in the past 48 hours we’ve learned the main seaport in Port-au-Prince was completely destroyed. This CNN report shows the devastation. As a result, MFK has lost a shipping container carrying $80,000 of raw materials. We are urgently seeking public donations to help us replace those materials. The fundraising is underway. Generous donors, including Scottrade, have stepped forward to make possible new shipments of Mamba ingredients to other ports in Haiti. But more money is urgently needed to make these emergency efforts possible. Please donate now.
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Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1224 days ago
St. Louis, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - Meds & Food for Kids is a non-profit organization based in St. Louis. The goal is to make a high protein food paste from peanuts (Medika Mamba) and use it to feed malnourished Haitian children. The group figures there are about 250,000 malnourished children in Haiti and says those numbers are about to go up. Tom Stehl with Meds and Food for Kids talked about how the organization is bracing for an increase in demand and how you can help.
Meds & Food for Kids saves the lives of Haiti's malnourished children by producing and distributing highly nutritious foods, including Medika Mamba, a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Because of its commitment to Haiti's long-term development, MFK produces Medika Mamba in Haiti, with Haitian labor, and with many Haitian raw materials.
Posted by admin
1224 days ago
Tom Stehl, Meds & Food for Kids' Coordinator of Operations, was featured on the Jaco Report's January 14th radio broadcast. Tom and Jaco discussed MFK's response to the devastating Haiti earthquake and MFK's life-saving product for malnourished children, Medika Mamba.
To listen, click here.
Posted by admin
1224 days ago
under Press
KSDK -- Meds and Food for Kids is a St. Louis based non-profit founded by a St. Louis pediatrician to provide food and medical supplies for Haitian children. Tom Stehl, who helps run the agency, joined NewsChannel 5's Jennifer Blome to talk about the challenges the organization is facing since the 7.0 earthquake hit. People who would like to donate can go to the Just Give web site or mail checks to Meds and Food for Kids, 4488 Forest Park, Ste. 230, St. Louis, Missouri, 63108.
Posted by admin
1226 days ago
Day by day, earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince grow more desperate for food — and Meds & Food for Kids (MFK), a St. Louis-based non-profit already working in Haiti to save the lives of malnourished children, is on the ground to help with emergency and long-term assistance. It is also urgently seeking donations from the public to make possible these stepped-up efforts.
In its factory, 80 miles north of the capital, MFK produces packets of “Medika Mamba,” an energy-dense peanut butter product recognized by the World Health Organization and UNICEF as the most effective treatment for malnutrition . MFK’s Port-au-Prince warehouse, unscathed by the quake, currently has 5,000 kilograms of Mamba ready for distribution to its clinical partners. Its warehouse manager, though injured, will coordinate this work.
“We are working feverishly to arrange transportation of these supplies to our partner network in Port-au-Prince, which includes Grace Children’s Hospital, Doctors Without Borders and Gheskio, a leading HIV/AIDS treatment center,” says Tom Stehl, MFK coordinator of operations.
For MFK, that will only be the beginning of its task. In coming weeks, MFK will increase production to turn out 10,000 more kilograms of Mamba, which it will distribute to children whose lives are threatened by ongoing shortages of food. Patricia Wolff, MD, MFK’s founder and executive director, has left for Haiti to supervise these efforts.
“There were 250,000 malnourished children in Haiti before the earthquake struck,” says Stehl, “and we know there will be an dramatic increase in this number as the second wave of the crisis hits.”
One urgent problem is obtaining enough raw materials — peanuts, sugar, oil, dried milk, vitamins and minerals — to produce this new supply of Mamba. Just before the quake hit, MFK had a large container of materials in the capital’s port, which was severely damaged in the quake. The fate of those materials is still unknown.
Generous donors, including Scottrade, an online brokerage firm, have stepped forward to make possible new shipments of Mamba ingredients to other ports. But more money is urgently needed to make these emergency efforts possible. MFK welcomes donations through its website: http://www.mfkhaiti.org/
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1228 days ago
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The powerful earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince yesterday has left Meds & Food for Kids, a St. Louis-based non-profit with operations in Haiti, searching for answers.
MFK has lost contact with its Port-au-Prince depot manager, Papillon Gerard, and is unsure of his whereabouts or safety. The organization also does not yet know the state of the depot itself and the raw materials that it houses. However, its food production facility in Cap-Haitien, northeast of the capital, appears to be unscathed.
“Almost everything is uncertain. Since phone service is down throughout the country, the Internet is our only means of communication right now. So we are having trouble reaching our Haitian partners to get more information,” said Tom Stehl, MFK coordinator of operations.
MFK is dedicated to saving the lives of Haiti’s 250,000 malnourished children by producing a therapeutic food known as “Medika Mamba,” an enriched peanut paste endorsed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. St. Louis pediatrician Patricia Wolff, MD, founded the organization in 2004, and it has since saved the lives of more than 13,000 malnourished children.
A second, equally vital, part of its mission is sustainability: teaching Haitian farmers better agricultural practices so they can raise larger, healthier crops of peanuts, used in Medika Mamba. MFK also employs Haitian workers at its plant, thus boosting the local economy.
In the wake of this earthquake, MFK knows that it will need to gear up to meet increased demand for its product. Humanitarian crises closely follow natural disasters, like the string of hurricanes that hit Haiti in 2008. Already this small nation, only 600 miles from the Florida coast, is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
“After the hurricanes, we saw a huge increase in the need for Medika Mamba,” Stehl added. “We expect, and are preparing for, a similar spike in demand over the coming weeks. Of course, we will need increased financial contributions to make this help a reality.”
