An Ounce of Prevention

The World Health Organization says one out of every three people worldwide suffers from diseases and developmental issues caused by intestinal parasites. Most don’t know they’re infected. They just know they’re sick.

Mayssa García Pacaya is one of those people. She was an underweight 17-year-old in Pucallpa, Peru. In spite of her health issues, she was usually happy. But not when Food for the Hungry showed up to give her anti-parasite pills. She had never taken them, didn’t want to, and saw no reason to pay attention to sanitation or personal hygiene.

But she agreed to take the pills. To her horror, her head and stomach began to hurt about an hour later. Then parasites started exiting her nose and mouth. She swore she would never take anti-parasite medicine again.

Food for the Hungry explained the process of parasite infection, the consequences of living with parasites, the negative health effects, and how it would affect Mayssa in school.

Mayssa now washes her hands, wears shoes and pays close attention to her health. She drinks boiled water, keeps the house cleaner and doesn’t eat food from street vendors. To the delight of everyone around her, she is healthier and has gained weight.

 

What We Do

Child Development Program: Facilitates the social, physical, spiritual and intellectual development of children and youth.

Church Development: Equips local churches with a biblical worldview, training in holistic ministry, and encouragement and support to helm them effectively meet the needs of children and families in their communities, and share God’s love in a concrete way.

Leadership Development: Equips community leaders with the knowledge necessary to respond to the needs of the children and families of their communities.

Health and Nutrition Program: Promotes healthy practices and disease prevention by sharing technical knowledge and practical solutions, and educating against the negative beliefs and values that affect people’s perspective about health.

Family Action Program: Works to reverse the tide of rampant physical and verbal violence that is considered a normal part of family life in Peru.

Teams: Facilitates hosting teams from other countries who partner with the Peruvian church through Food for the Hungry. These teams assist in construction projects, lead camps, and offer health workshops, leadership/pastoral trainings and various other programs.

Hunger Corps: Partners with foreign churches and individuals to send missionaries to work alongside Peruvian staff and community members, sharing in their daily burdens and joys with the goal of seeing families, leaders, and communities transformed.

Food for the Hungry began working in Lima, Peru, in 1982, but was soon urged to leave because of terrorist activity. A decade later, we came back and have since been implementing long-term projects in Peru.

A severe economic meltdown in the 1990s – combined with deep political and economic divisions, guerilla warfare, and a thriving drug trade – has resulted in extreme poverty in urban shantytowns and people living in the mountains.

Hoping to find work in Lima during the economic crisis, many rural Peruvians migrated to Lima, the capital city. Instead, they found horrible conditions and today live in abject poverty in shantytowns precariously built on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, the rural poor in the Andes mountains and the Amazon basin jungle continue to be marginalized and lack clean water, good education, nutrition, and other basic necessities.

Peruvians experience a wide gap between the rich and poor – a small elite of Spanish descent controls most of the wealth and political power, while indigenous Peruvians are largely excluded from both and make up many of the millions who live in poverty. Public education in Peru is one of the lowest in quality in Latin America, creating serious social issues. Poor education coupled with chronic malnutrition provides little opportunity for youth to advance in life, and most hold little hope for a better future. Consequently, youth take to the streets in gangs, consuming and selling illicit drugs.