The population in the urban marginal areas has access to very few economical resources; often they live in extreme poverty. Over 50% of this population earns $ 5 or less per day. The lack of economical resources is one of the main causes of malnutrition, because it prohibits the families of buying proper ingredients.
Within the families in the urban marginal areas of Cusco, 70% of the money is earned by fathers and others and 30% is earned by mothers. Empowering women in managing their own company will produce independence in the mothers, allowing them to manage their own funds and take care of their children’s diet themselves. Like this, the children’s nutrition will be taken care of properly.
Apart from malnutrition problems, most families in the areas of intervention have poor hygiene, worsening the health of the entire family. They have drainage, but lousy excreta disposal systems; they have water, but make inappropriate use of it and they have poorly distributed and shared environments between humans and animals, making also improper use of the dishes and cooking utensils. Because of this, the project aims on integration with the focus on healthy homes as well as the practice of good health and hygiene habits.
We work with a team of a business counselor and a health counselor, who visit the families and perform family counseling. In parallel, the mothers receive basic advice from the project to improve their income generating initiatives that will serve to improve food availability.
