Project Lead(s): Susan Dix Lyons
Clínica Verde, a global healthcare organization, operates a prototype clinic in Boaco, Nicaragua. The staff is guided by compassion and dignity for the poor; the clinic is grounded in principles of sustainable and human-centered design, and it provides nutrition and health education to enhance self-efficacy and preventive health care.
With its new support, the group aims to transform radically the long-term health of rural underserved communities in Nicaragua by expanding its Prenatal Nutrition Program to 10 new government health posts, in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
The program conducts interactive lessons and regular checkups with pregnant mothers, teaching them about the stages of fetal development, ways to care for their child in the womb, the importance of breastfeeding, and how to improve nutrition while pregnant and during their children's first give years. During the program, the pregnant women will also have the opportunity to learn about bio intensive gardening, an organic agriculture system to produce healthy food.
By focusing on mothers early in their pregnancy, partnering with the local government and public health sector, and creating powerful networks of support and education, the program helps improve the health of rural households and pregnant women, ensuring children are given a healthy start and a lifetime of improved wellness behaviors.