In August 2012, RMF CNE Santosh Pall found Pooja, a 9 month old girl, in Devigarh village, with a MUAC of 7.9. Picture the circumference of your thumb: that was the size of her upper arm.
Pooja was immediately rushed to the closest Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) in the Thandla Hospital. There, she received the care that was required, and slowly began gaining weight. After 16 days in the NRC, she was released for home feeding.
Over the course of the past three years, RMF’s Community Nutrition Educators (CNEs) have helped thousands of children recover from malnutrition. Some times these cases are easy to handle: the CNE diagnoses a child, refers them to treatment, and the family agrees to do everything they can to help their child. Often, however, there are too many challenges for these families to overcome to give their child the treatment they require.
Right now in Madhya Pradesh, the only treatment option for children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is a 14 to 21 day stay in a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), located at central facilities outside of villages. In addition to the child, a primary caretaker, such as the mother, has to also stay with the child for the duration of their treatment. With responsibilities at home, work required in the fields for agricultural livelihoods, the care of other children, and a high level of migration for work during the dry season, it is extremely difficult to convince parents to take their children to the NRCs for this care.
Gendha with Sagar (see story below)
March 27, 2013 – Los Angeles, CA – Today the international humanitarian relief organization Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) announces Climb for Real™, a mountain climbing program through which private individuals can register and use their climb to raise awareness of the organization’s international work and fundraise for RMF’s projects around the world. The program is being launched with its first volunteer already on board: George Clardy, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Ventura County, will climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, for Real Medicine this fall.
Dr. Fuchs says, “When I met George at a party last summer, I was very impressed that he had accomplished to do almost all items on his bucket list; climbing Kilimanjaro was the last one remaining. We discussed RMF’s projects around the world, especially in Africa, and he decided that evening to climb Kilimanjaro to raise awareness and funds for our global work – a perfect fit since his extraordinary physical mission as well as our humanitarian work push limits of what is possible.”
Congratulations to all the runners of the LA Marathon, especially our group of 40 runners who participated in the Marathon, the Charity Relay and the 5k races this past weekend LA!
Collectively the RMF runners raised more than $12,000 for RMF project funding through the RMF fundraiser site and donations are still coming into the successful runners pages here
More photos of our team and video to come
The following update was written by James Nardella, our partner in Lwala, Kenya of the Lwala Communty Alliance and our support of the Ochieng’ Memorial Lwala Community Health Center
The Lwala Staff conducting a recent youth outreach activity on reproductive health
The following blog was written by Dr. Arvind Virmani, an Indian economist, about malnutrition in India. The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of RMF, however they address many of the challenges our teams face in fighting malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh. The author can be reached via his website: https://sites.google.com/site/drarvindvirmani/
http://dravirmani.blogspot.in/2013/02/indias-problem-is-malnutrition-not-food.html
We are proud to report that donations have been tallied and our first Beauty for Real™ event was a success!
Good Earth Compounding Pharmacy
On Saturday February 16, Dr. Tanya Kormeili and Great Earth Compounding Pharmacy of West Hollywood hosted Beauty for Real™ a unique fundraiser that aimed to have people show their beauty from the inside out. Attendees could obtain a number of cosmetic services – at a one-time discount, with proceeds going to Real Medicine – from Dr. Kormeili, a popular LA dermatologist (who has been seen on The Doctors and in media worldwide).
Beauty for Real™ is part of our efforts to make philanthropy part of people’s everyday lives. It’s the newest in a series of events we’re doing (Run for Real™, Walk for Real™, Food for Real™ — and a new one we’re about to announce!)
