Thank you for supporting Baby Bellies

The Baby Bellies Programme is by far one of the most easily positive programmes at Riverkids. We see malnourished babies in the slum, get sponsors, raise funds, get the parents to agree to put their babies in our programme, start feeding the baby and then we see the tremendous progress the babies and toddlers make as they blossom into chubby healthy babies.

Earlier this year, we worked out how many babies would need our help in 2010, and realised we hadn't budgeted enough for the Baby Bellies programme. Nutrition for a malnourished baby or toddler is about $0.50-$1 a day, depending on their age and health.

We asked people to help us expand to covering 12 babies, and we are delighted to say that a donation this week's donation has brought us to 11 babies!

Without the support of generous donors, this would not have been possible. We want to thank Ruth, Molly Jester from Stop Exploitation Now, Colin, Angie, Christine, Toh Chung, Seng Hon, Xiao Xiang, Katherine, Hanim and Nanci.

Thank you so much for your support and for sharing about us with your friends!

Switching food

We're working on improving the food that we give the kids at Riverkids. We had one list in 2007 of healthy local snacks (fruit, certain cakes, eggs etc) but as we shifted around and new classes were added, the list ended up in the office, and food buying became the responsibility of four or five different staff for different groups of kids. Tasty but not so healthy snacks crept in!

So now we're switching back to basics again! Soya milk and fruit for regular snack times for the three main groups of kids.

Next up is figuring out not just what the right snacks and meals are, but how to make sure the policy actually gets put into practice.

Laminated menu plans? A list of banned foods? Making just one person responsible for all the food choices?

Stay tuned for the update!