Dylan’s father disappeared when Ruth became pregnant at 19 years old and has never had a role in either of their lives. Ruth is the oldest of four and still lives with her mother and siblings in a small two-room concrete house in rural Imbabura Province, Ecuador. Ruth’s mother, also a single mom, suffers from a chronic illness that at times prevents her from performing household duties. The family farms potatoes as their staple crop, but the region has experienced drought over the last couple of years, and the harsh equatorial sun has withered much of their field. Ruth occasionally earns money as a cook when work becomes available, and with this meager income, she supports everyone in the home. In the first year after Dylan was weaned, his diet consisted mainly of potatoes and rice as the family struggled to find any other food in the harsh highland climate of the Andes Mountains. “My mother and I do not have food every day. The little I have, I give my son, and if I can’t eat, it doesn’t matter,” says Ruth.
Perhaps it was Dylan’s low-nutrient diet, or Ruth couldn’t breastfeed him as much as she needed to without enough food for herself, but by age 2, Dylan was severely malnourished and under-developed. “He was very weak, he was always sleeping. The little food he ate, he would vomit it up, he had a constant fever,” recalls Ruth. When Ruth took Dylan to the local government health center, she was told his condition was dangerous. It was then that Dylan’s name was placed on a referral list to participate in ChildFund’s Growing with You program.
Almost immediately, Ruth received a visit from an outreach worker with FOCI, ChildFund’s local partner organization. The worker brought a kit of much-needed food for Dylan and his mother which contained nutritious foodstuffs like eggs, powdered milk, lentils, fortified flour, oats, cooking oil, and cans of tuna. This was the first of many supplies to help get Dylan healthy. After the initial visit, Ruth began attending regular workshops put on by FOCI for parents of children under six-years-old, like herself. These workshops focused on themes like child health and nutrition, development, child safety, and positive parenting. Regular visits to their home would also occur, where field workers from FOCI would assess Dylan’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development. With increased knowledge and nutritional assistance, Dylan gradually began to put on weight and grow stronger over the next several months.
Today, Dylan, who just turned four, is attending pre-kindergarten and defying expectations for a child who recently experienced severe acute malnutrition. Thanks to supporters of ChildFund’s work, Ruth will continue to attend workshops and receive nutritional kits as needed until Dylan leaves the Growing with You program. Lit up like a firecracker, “He has told me many times that he wants to be a doctor,” says Ruth. “Since my mother is sick, he wants to be a doctor and treat his granny.”
