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Caring For Children In The Chaos Of Haiti

A child in Haiti receives a checkup from the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.
Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti
A child in Haiti receives a checkup from the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.

For more than twenty years, the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti - a nonprofit here in Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley - has helped women and families to break the cycle of malnutrition in a remote, mountainous area of southern Haiti.

The staff on the ground - in the Leogane region - is 97 percent Haitian.

Between 2019 and 2021 - before and during the pandemic - CNP conducted 43,556 malnutrition screenings and 6,829 maternal screenings.

But ever since the summer of last year, CNP’s work has been disrupted by shock after shock for the Caribbean nation: the assassination of Haiti’s President, a hurricane, tropical storms, gang activity, ongoing roadblocks, food insecurity and the nonexistence of modern health care.

Dr. Anany Prosper is CNP’s Country Director - and Patricia Cyr Watlington is the program’s executive director.

Packages of Plumpy Nut, ready-to-use therapeutic food distributed by the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.
Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.
Packages of Plumpy Nut, ready-to-use therapeutic food distributed by the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.

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