Since its founding nearly thirty years ago, the San Yves Nutrition Center has saved the lives of the children who arrive there. But there has always been uncertainty as to their continued health and development when they go home. While routine health check ups are scheduled with the kids, many of the families have not returned to San Yves for those check ups. Their remoteness - some live a day’s journey away from San Yves - and a lack of resources have made it difficult or impossible to go visit them.
We’re excited to say that with the help of NutriFund, San Yves has recently expanded its programming to include regular follow up visits for the children when they go home.
The follow up, however, is not as straightforward as it may seem. There are no addresses up in the mountains, and sometimes roads are washed away or impassable. Homes or even entire communities may be hidden by forests, and asking for directions often receives a vague response. Sometimes we are instructed, “Just go a little further up the road that way.” That may mean a half mile or ten miles - with several splits in the road for the team to guess which way to go.
On a recent trip to Mina Honda—a large indigenous community in the mountains two hours south of Yoro—the team looked for five children who had left San Yves within the last year. After an hour of knocking on doors and asking around, the team encountered Roger and his mom Miriam (pictured). She was ecstatic to see us and repeatedly said how grateful she was for how San Yves had treated her son. She asked if there was anything she could help with, which was exactly what was needed. We asked, “Do you know any of the four kids we are looking for?”
One of the kids she was certain had moved away, one she had never heard of and did not think lived there, but the other two were nearby. She then accompanied us walking across the community to look for the other two children.
Finding three of the five children we were looking for may not have gone as well as expected, but for a first attempt to follow up with them in Mina Honda, we still consider it a success. Knowing kids remain healthy after leaving San Yves reinforces the importance of the care provided there and its long-term impact on their lives.