Nancy Wagner, Pat Arling
Doug Anderson introduce our speaker Nancy Wagner. Nancy has been connected with numerous nonprofit organizations working in Haiti to give hope, health and life to tens of thousands of adults and children. She was Feed My Starving Children's first Development Director and continues her involvement in hunger relief, economic development and health care as a liaison between and ambassador for ministries in Minnesota and Haiti. She currently serves as President of Children's Health Ministries' Board of Directors.
Children’s Health Ministries’ (CHM) mission is to strengthen families by serving the health and nutritional needs of children and mothers. They work in Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas, with 80% of the population living in poverty. Forty-five thousand children under age 5 die each year, mostly due to poverty related illnesses. CHM established an Outpatient Malnutrition Program to work with the estimated 19% of children under 5 years are under-weight and over 4% who are acutely malnourished. Fifty-three of the child deaths in Haiti are the result of malnutrition.
Children over the age of 6 months of age are treated using Medika Mamba, a ready to use therapeutic food product produced in Haiti specifically designed to treat acute malnutrition.
Haiti’s maternal mortality rate is the highest in the western hemisphere. Children’s Health Ministry provide women with prenatal care to help reduce risk to both mother and child. Nancy shared some personal stories of women that have been helped by CHM. To learn more visit their website, http://www.chmhaiti.org