{"id":86209,"date":"2016-06-27T11:08:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T15:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=86209"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:27:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:27:21","slug":"childhood-malnutrition-and-sex-ed-in-nicaragua","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2016\/childhood-malnutrition-and-sex-ed-in-nicaragua\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood Malnutrition and Sex Ed in Nicaragua"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 27, 2016<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"SPH
Rebecca Albanese (left) and Chelsea Jensen measure a child in Quezalguaque as part of their nutrition research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the small Nicaraguan municipality of Quezalguaque, torrential rains knock out electricity and water and shorten school days, and the nearby fault line makes earthquakes and tremors common occurrences.<\/p>\n

For five School of Public Health practicum students studying child nutrition and developing sex education curricula for 7th\u00a0through 10th\u00a0graders, that meant thinking on their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways be ready with a backup plan to your backup plan,\u201d says Natasha Viveiros.<\/p>\n

Viveiros, Rebecca Albanese, Chelsea Jensen, Beleny Reese, and Samantha Clark spent six weeks this summer in Quezalguaque through the Brookline-Quezalguaque Sister City Project (BQSCP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team was asked by Quezalguaque\u2019s health center to study the rising rate of malnutrition among children under 6 years old in the community and surrounding area.<\/p>\n

With four medical students from the Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de Nicaragua (UNAN) in the nearby city of Le\u00f3n, the team went door-to-door interviewing the families of malnourished children and a control group.<\/p>\n

\"Clockwise
The team (clockwise from top left): SPH students Natasha Viveiros, Samantha Clark, Chelsea Jensen, Beleny Reese, and Rebecca Albanese, and UNAN medical students Dominique Esquivel, Anielka Espinoza, Yerr\u00ed Ruiz, and Alexa Duarte.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The municipality is mostly rural, with population heavily dependent on agriculture. \u201cSugarcane and peanuts have become the major crops,\u201d says Jensen. \u201cWhen there is not work in these crops, life becomes difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParents have told us that if it is not cane season, then they do not have steady access to food,\u201d Clark says.<\/p>\n

However, Quezalguaque varies significantly from one local division, called a comarca<\/em>, to another.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some communities, there are many fruit trees and areas to grow food,\u201d says Albanese. \u201cIn others, there are pigs and chickens all around, and in others, there are many pulper\u00edas<\/em>, local small convenience stores.\u201d While dependence on seasonal work was the biggest, overarching issue, Albanese says, \u201ceach community seems to have different reasons for underweight children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team also took on the high rates of teenage pregnancy in Quezalguaque, developing a sex education curriculum\u2014after being delayed by minor earthquake\u2014and implemented the two-part course with the UNAN medical students in eight classes at three schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding one’s body and being able to plan pregnancies is a key component in alleviating poverty,\u201d says Jensen.<\/p>\n

\"The
The SPH and UNAN students designed and implemented a sex education curriculum for 7th through 10th grade at three schools in Quezalguaque.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now back in the US, the team is analyzing the data from the nutrition survey and assessing the effectiveness of the sexual education curriculum. They will provide recommendations to the health center and the local government based on their findings.<\/p>\n

Viveiros says the project exemplified why she studies public health.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis practicum provided the opportunity to collaborate with my fellow global health students and plan the childhood malnutrition community assessment I had desired,” she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Brookline-Quezalguaque Sister City Program (BQSCP) team is taking over the SPH Instagram account from June 27 through July 1. Follow along at Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Quezalguaque, students survey child nutrition and create curricula for 7th through 10th graders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":86219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[506,1850,1899,1753],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3528,3532],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86209"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174154,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86209\/revisions\/174154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=86209"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=86209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}