Giving Season stories continue with Unity 4 Orphans’ program Nutrition 4 Change and how it’s making a difference in the lives of children in Central America experiencing extreme poverty and food insecurity.
Our end-of-year blog series features transformative stories from 5 different locations, each highlighting a separate program: Education 4 Change, Healing 4 Change, Nutrition 4 Change, Play 4 Change, and Shelter for Change.
In-Country Partnerships Enable U4O to Help More Children in Need
Children living in extreme poverty who aren’t having their basic needs met are much more likely to not receive an education, experience abuse, and grow up to continue the cycle as adults. Through U4O’s program Nutrition 4 Change we’re changing that story, one full belly at a time.
The places where we want to partner with people are often the same places where sociopolitical difficulties are rampant. But the Lord delights in meeting our needs and U4O delights in being able to aid these programs and be part of what God is doing in NCentral America. We want to step into these places alongside our in-country partners.
–Caitlin Snyder, U4O Engagement Director
In September we served over 3,700 plates of food, bringing vital nourishment and dignity to kids who live in extreme poverty in a garbage dump in Central America. For a cost of less than a dime a day, we’re able to provide a child with a meal, and as the number of children in the program grows we are focused on growing our support for them.
Feeding Centers in Central America Provide Nutrition to Malnourished Children
We currently partner with 7 feeding centers in some of the poorest areas in Central America, with a vision to expand to more locations as well as expand the services that each location provides. In many places crime, gang violence, and sexual abuse are pervasive and kids are often left to fend for themselves and their younger siblings. In others, the extreme level of poverty keeps kids from growing at a normal rate and prevents them from having the capacity to gain an education.
I have learned to see life differently and that is a blessing. I don’t have the right to complain because I see all this pain and hunger that’s so real. Despite their troubles, the children believe they can grow and that Jesus can change their lives. I feel the Lord wants to do something in Central America and that many missionaries will rise out of that area.
–Keysi M., Partner, Jesus is the Way
Thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers, children living in and around a dump receive vital care including de-worming and iron supplements to help their little bodies gain the nutrients they need from the food they receive. In the poorest of locations, they’re receiving nutrition, learning about God’s love for them, and establishing a foundation to receive help with school work and in the future–learning English as a second language.
Nutrition + Education + God’s Love Helps Kids Rise Above Poverty
As Keysi and her dedicated in-country team continue to welcome more children in 2024, we can easily see the number of kids we’re helping grow from nearly 900 to over 1,000 in the first quarter of the year. With so many precious futures at stake, she also aims to bolster the curriculum they use to educate the children, make sure they learn to read and write, and know that Jesus loves them.
Our dedicated partners in Central America are feeding the children food, as well as the Word of God.
–Joe Brandi, U4O Founder
In one of the poorest locations, El Cocal, the children need food every day, a more dire need than in the others. To help meet these needs, and those of all the kids served by the programs, Keysi started the nonprofit Jesus is the Way, and is humbled to see how others come alongside their mission. By enabling and sharing their vision, we are helping kids with a complete lack of resources grow up healthy.
Nutrition 4 Change is Poised to Feed Thousands of Meals in 2024
To encourage the children to pursue their education the team in Central America offer rewards for good grades, an incentive that a 14-year-old girl named Lucia takes seriously. She has perfect grades in every subject, is a teacher’s helper, and is very engaged with the program. Lucia has hope that she can break out of the misery cycle she’s known and her example encourages us to keep going and bring transformation to the lives of other kids.
My prayer is that the Lord will change the children’s hearts. I want this place to be full of people who love God and for missionaries to go into the world and allow God to use them and make a change in their communities.
Keysi M., Partner, Jesus is the Way
As the kids served by Nutrition 4 Change in Central America get older, they are encountering and internalizing the love of Jesus and even looking for ways to serve others. With the compassion that has been demonstrated to them, they are finding peace, purpose, and hope for the future. We hope you’ll join us in our fight to nourish the children who have been entrusted to our care.