“Almost 100 families showed up for nutritional screening,” describes Matt Giesbrecht. “Most of the families came from remote and very poor areas. It was amazing to see their eagerness when food was served. Survival instinct kicked in as these little ones guarded their bowls. So much to be thankful for!”
Matt Giesbrecht is an RN from California who has been living in Oriani, Ouest, Haiti, for the last year. I first met Matt in Fort Worth as he was completing the INMED International Medicine & Public Health Course. Coincidently the very first lesson in this course is assessment and management of nutritional disorders.
Matt continues, “We only took children in the ‘red’ zone on this first day. Many more children were given return cards for next week. It was simply too busy to treat everyone. The red zone is the most serious level of malnutrition on the scale. Tomorrow, we will take 6 of the children down to Port in the ambulance for emergency nutrition stabilization.” Great work, Matt!