Wash your hands before you eat and after you go to the bathroom. Kids grow faster and are healthier if they eat healthy foods. Playing with your children helps them learn. These are simple truths, but because Lajastambo is a vulnerable community facing malnutrition, poverty, and a lack of education, FH staff focus on educating children and adults on some of these healthy habits that lead to a higher quality of life.

Today our team visited the nutrition/community center built with funds by Blackhawk. While this building works as a health center focusing on growth charts and consistent check-ups for children, it serves as an education center for their parents and community leaders. One of the great things about FH is that as an organization, it prioritizes creating leaders from within the communities who can then educate their neighbors.

We were able to see this first-hand as we helped mothers create toys for their children out of recycled materials. A fishing game made of shoe boxes, cardboard fish, and yarn encouraged children to develop fine motor skills. While these mothers made games, another group of women cooked nutritional food from local ingredients (All the dishes were delicious!). After each group finished, they shared their different activities and how to duplicate them in their own homes.

Later in the afternoon, we worked with children and focused on developing good habits. Our team split in two. While one group helped children learn how to brush their teeth properly, the other went to a class focused on recycling. We reused plastic bottles by turning them into pencil cases, learned why a healthy environment is important, and practiced washing our hands before eating a snack.

While it would be easy to say FH does good work by helping children develop a proper hand-washing routine, their gospel-centered focus goes so much farther. As our quality of life is defined not only by our physical well-being, but also by our emotional and spiritual wellness, FH staff explain that we want to be healthy because our bodies are gifts and our lives are sacred. Also, by educating adult leaders who can then reach out to their neighbors, FH helps build community that reflects a humble, loving God who serves others!

Feeling blessed,
Pearl (Leah)

Sent from my iPhone