Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
EPISODE 38 - Project Peanut Butter's Global Impact
Can the power of one small, nutritious peanut butter product change the world? Join us to discover how Dr. Mark Maneri’s innovative ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) is revolutionizing the fight against severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Maneri, visionary CEO and founder of Project Peanut Butter, alongside Arthur Santos, President-Elect of the Palm Springs Sunup Rotary Club, shares the remarkable journey of this life-saving initiative. Learn about the profound impact of RUTF, the critical role of Rotarians, and the inspiring success stories that have emerged from this global collaboration.
Travel with us to Payatas in the Philippines, a community built around a vast garbage dump, where hope and resilience shine through the darkest conditions. Hear how a brave group of nuns set up a feeding center for malnourished children and partnered with Project Peanut Butter to create a small-scale production facility. This powerful story illustrates the ingenuity and determination of the local population, transforming lives by tackling malnutrition head-on. Discover the impressive success rates of these interventions and how they extend crucial support to malnourished pregnant women, nurturing both maternal and child health.
Finally, look towards the future with us as we explore the potential for global grants in the Philippines and the vital role of visual storytelling in humanitarian efforts. Understand how even a modest $100 donation can treat two and a half children, showcasing the profound impact of community support. Celebrate Rotary's unwavering commitment to optimism and service, and feel inspired by the tangible, life-saving results of Project Peanut Butter. Join Judy Zulfikar and Jamie Zinn in this heartfelt episode, and be moved by the incredible stories of hope, gratitude, and global collaboration.
Welcome to the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope. I'm your host, judy Zulfikar, and I'm thrilled to be joined by my amazing co-host, jamie Zinn, district Governor of Rotary District 5330. Together, we will take you on a journey to discover the incredible impact Rotarians have on our community and around the world. Get ready to be inspired by our Rotary Heroes of Hope, by our Rotary Heroes of Hope. Today we have two very special guests that we're and we're talking about Project Peanut Butter, another one of our international projects that is very impactive and has been going on a long time. Have you been involved much with Project Peanut Butter, jamie?
Speaker 2:I have been involved with it in the past. But, of course, the Palm Springs Sunup this is where it all emanated with and I'm sure that Arthur is going to give us a little history the past. But, of course, the Palm Springs Sunup this is where it all emanated with, and I'm sure that Arthur's going to give us a little history on that. But it is a fantastic project. Fantastic and it impacts millions of children.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to jump right in and I'm going to go ahead and have Arthur Santos introduce himself and get us started on this conversation about Project Peanut Butter.
Speaker 3:Great. Thank you, Judy. My name is Arthur Sankos. I am a member of the Palm Springs SANA. We're the morning club in Palm Springs. I've been a Rotarian since 2015. I guess I should mention that I am the president-elect.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely mention that. I love that as the district governor-elect, I'm going to be able to work with Arthur quite closely.
Speaker 3:I have not forgotten that it's coming really soon Very fast. As many of our Rotarians in the district know, dennis Spurgeon is quite legendary in terms of having started the work with Project Peanut Butter and we're very lucky this morning that we are joined none other than the CEO and founder of Project Peanut Butter himself, dr Mark Maneri. Dr Maneri, do you want to say hi?
Speaker 4:Hi, I'm delighted to have this time to talk and look forward to working together further. Arthur, Thank you.
Speaker 1:So for our guest Arthur, can you explain what is Project Peanut Butter? We have a lot of listeners that aren't necessarily Rotarians or in our district that might not understand this program at all. Sure, might not understand this program at all.
Speaker 3:Sure, unfortunately, even to this day, millions of children, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are still affected by what is called severe acute malnutrition, and Project Peanut Butter really has been in the forefront of the fight against SAM severe acute malnutrition and the reason why I asked Dr Maneri to join us, not only because he knows more about French peanut butter than I do.
Speaker 3:In the early 2000s, really, dr Maneri and his colleagues were responsible for creating what is called RUTF ready-to-use therapeutic food and, if I can say, the invention of that really revolutionized the battle against severe acute malnutrition, because originally children who were affected by these by Sam mostly were treated in hospitals and the recovery rates, even having been taken to the hospital, the recovery rates are not as impressive.
Speaker 3:In fact they are not as good. And with Dr Maneri's creation and his colleagues' creation of RUTF and his colleagues of creation of RUTF because RUTF is home-based therapy and the mothers can be taught how to administer it to their children the success rate really of saving these children from SAM is phenomenal. And so really that is the genesis of Project Peanut Butter and to give our listeners a better background on how we got started, dennis Spurgeon, who has been a longtime member of our club really initiated the work with Project Peanut Butter going back to 2009. And when I looked at the 2009. And when I looked at the, dennis actually shared his binder of Project Peanut Butter information with me recently and Dr Maneri correct me if I'm wrong, but I think over the years going back to 2000, starting in 2011, we have funded through global grant applications close to $760,000.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's quite an amount.
Speaker 3:These are projects that have been, you know, through Project Peanut Butter, implemented in countries like Malawi, ghana, sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and, interestingly enough, including the Philippines, where I am originally from, and so, as I mentioned, dennis has been doing it for so long. At some point, dennis had to retire from doing all the work that he has done for Project Peanut Platters. About a year and a half ago, he volunteered me to take over the work of doing the global grant applications on behalf of Project Peanut Butter, and as challenging and as difficult the work has been, I am actually grateful that I am able to work with Dr Maneri and Project Peanut Butter. It has been quite a learning experience, but with this new global grant application that we started this year, we are actually embarking on doing something a little bit new than what we are used to in terms of working with Project Peanut Butter.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to interrupt you here and see if maybe Dr Maneri, can you tell us about this therapeutic food and how it's helping the children of sub-Saharan Africa.
Speaker 4:For sure. So I'm a pediatrician and I've been working in sub-Saharan Africa since 1985. So we're pushing 40 years here. And when I say working in, I mean physically working there, not talking about it or showing or just, you know, hearing about it or something. And it's a huge problem among children who I would say are six months to 24 or 36 months, that they don't get enough to eat. They have a couple of other insults and they get themselves to the point, as Arthur said, they're severely malnourished and at that point half of those children, unhelped, will die in three months and the other half will go on to have all kinds of terrible disabilities. Ok, so it's really a bad problem and I worked very hard for about the first 15 years or so in Africa trying to improve the care of these kids and made in the standard party line deal was that we would admit these kids to the hospital and we give them milk-based foods, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with milk-based foods.
Speaker 4:But this was not a good strategy for these kids at all and so what we saw was that less than half recovered. No matter what, no matter if we tried a lot and pulled out every stop and made special foods, we had no uh success higher than 50. So I was very interested in home based therapy. I lived in a village in 1999 for 10 weeks. I cooked with women every day, I held firewood and water and I look it's going to be home-based therapy. It's going to have to be something that's full of fat and protein, something that does no firewood necessary, doesn't need cooking, doesn't spoil and tropical, tropical conditions and bacteria can't grow in it.
Speaker 4:And I'm an american. So what is that? We devised and of course, any big project has lots and lots and lots and lots, lots of of collaborators and helpers and so forth. We made, we devised food that would complete. In other words, you don't need to eat anything else but it to recover from severe malnutrition. That could be administered at home. It's peanut butter with some milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar and my and micronutrients mixed in. It's not magic, it's not coming from special leaves on special trees, it's just basic nutrition. And what we saw when we started using that was absolutely amazing. Recovery rates zoomed to 95%.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a big change, that's huge.
Speaker 4:You don't have to be a statistician to say, oh well, that's different here or something like that. I mean it was statistician to say, oh well, that's different here or something like that. I mean this, it was like I was. I often say, you know, hiking up a steep hill with a 40 pound pack and somebody comes by and takes the pack. What does the rest of the journey feel like? Easy.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:It feels like the weight has been lifted, and so we therefore endeavor to take that to further steps further. And in the early 2000s we looked at what we were doing after three years and said you know, this is great, the success is very robust. How can we make this available to people outside that we're never going to see, never going to touch, never going to treat? And we, a friend and I looked at each other and we said we got to do three things. We've got to make this, make the experts embrace what we're doing, because what were they saying? Careless, reckless, dangerous, killing children. Why would you take people out of the six so sick out of the hospital only to make them back?
Speaker 4:We needed to make a lot more of this food, and we needed to get rid of researchy elements and sort of extra monitoring elements, you know, to really put this in the hands of community health workers in Africa. And so Project Peanut Butter was created, for the production of food principally, although we do spend lots of time on the other areas as well advocacy and care of children, and we were working in Malawi. We pushed that forward in Malawi, we started doing that in Sierra Leone, and what I've really appreciated about working with Dennis and now Arthur is an ability to use funds and resources as an investment that's going to pay itself off 10 times over or 20 times over or some much bigger number than that.
Speaker 1:Because I understand the food isn't made in the States any longer, or hasn't been for a long time. You now have factories in the country that they're being Exactly.
Speaker 2:And can you share with our viewers how the food is made and how you get it out to the people that need it, and in what type of form are they receiving it?
Speaker 4:So it looks like peanut butter, peanut paste. It's a little bit thicker and, of course, it looks like the natural peanut paste, the oil sitting on the top. It's a mixing process. It's clean, you know. So we're using the highest sanitation standards, we're mixing it in 200 kilogram batches and we're putting into packets or plastic jars.
Speaker 4:And only the children who have a small arm circumference, who are genuinely malnourished, receive the food, and they receive it until they are no longer severely malnourished, and then they they don't. This is not something like changing their diet forever, giving them a supplement. This is all they would need to recover their. Their habitual diet has gotten. They've gotten in such bad trouble that they've walked to the edge of the cliff. They're facing death's door. We just pull them back with the food and we are not. It's not something directed to everybody who's poor or some people who are at risk. You have to actually have severe, acute malnutrition and then you get the treatment.
Speaker 4:We've improved the food over the last 10, 15 years by adding some fish oil. Fish oil is very important for neurocognitive development and so these children, when they are thin, every part of their body is thin, so their arm may look very thin, they may look like skin and bones, but if you could see their heart, it is also paper thin. And if you could see their brain, it is shrunken inside their skull as malnourished. So the food we give needs to restore all of that. So we have made some modifications. So, in other words, this isn't a static story from the early 2000s and now we're kind of propagating. We're propagating and bettering, and the fish oil adds 10, excuse me, six to 15 IQ points to every child who's treated.
Speaker 1:Wow, Arthur. How did the funds get from our Rotary Club in Coachella Valley to help Dr Maneri in his efforts in Africa or around the world?
Speaker 3:I know that in the past, like in Malawi, we have given funds when the factory was being established there to manufacture our UTF.
Speaker 3:We've also provided funds to provide transport for the employees of Project Peanut Butter.
Speaker 3:We have to understand, for one infrastructure over there isn't anything remotely similar to what we have in the US. I mean no highways, mostly dirt roads right, and a lot of the places that they go to where they have established the clinics are not in the capital. I mean a good example the grant that we're putting together right now where we will be establishing prenatal clinics in a town called Coindu. It's five hours away from the capital in Sierra Leone, and so, because of the generosity of the clubs that we have in the district, we have actually accumulated more than the initial $50,000 grant that we were shooting for. Now we have a little bit extra, and so we will help Dr Munari and Project Unit Butter purchase a vehicle just for the purpose of moving the supplies for these clinics and moving the employees that we'll have around the three clinics that would eventually be providing prenatal services in those areas In the Philippines. And help me, dr Monari, I believe they work with actually a Catholic organization run by nuns that basically established a feeding center for children.
Speaker 4:I think it's still.
Speaker 3:is that still ongoing, Dr Maneri, Because I know it was in 2012.
Speaker 4:It is. It's a pretty innovative program there in the Philippines. It's one of the first we interacted with. So, at, payatas is a huge garbage dump. It's one of the biggest one in the world. It is miles across a crater where trash is brought and disposed of, and there are communities of people that sort through that trash and live around that trash. And then there are communities of helpers, such as these nuns there, the Argentinian organization, and they said hey, we're hearing about what you're doing in Africa. You know, we have a lot of folks here with tuberculosis and so forth, with nutritional needs. And so I said great, this isn't so hard. We can start up a small scale production facility for $25,000, you know, buying the mixer and getting things going. And we did that.
Speaker 4:We did that, I think, in 2009 or 2010, arthur, one of those years and they've been doing it ever since. And they've started, actually soon after that, a preschool for kids who are only malnourished. Your entry ticket for the preschool is to be malnourished and you it's. You stay in the school for four months. I mean, you don't live there and sleep there, but you come to school every day for four months and, um, they have all kinds of other kinds of enrichment programs as well as nutritionally refeeding these children. Um, and that's, they're just absolutely uh, wonderful and powerful, um, uh, people making the world a better place, and there is a Rotary Club that we visited there too, and they have helped with maintaining and establishing that production facility and volunteering at the preschool as well.
Speaker 3:Judy, I think one thing that we need to keep in mind is, you know, not only is Project Peanut Butter combating this disease called severe malnutrition, but having to do that, you know, against the backdrop of severe poverty in the areas that they're doing this important work in, and not only poverty, but in certain cases even political unrest, right and the lack of infrastructure. So I think it's nothing short of a miracle that they're even able to do all the things that they're you know this doubt that Dr Moneri is talking about outside.
Speaker 3:I grew up in Manila, I know where it is, I've never seen it. But if you can just imagine this gigantic garbage dump, I mean literally thousands of people live right in that area. Wow, right around the dump. You know whose livelihoods around the dump. You know whose livelihoods mostly depend upon.
Speaker 1:You know what they pick up from the dump right, and their health depends upon what they pick up from the dump, with all the diseases and all the things that that entails as well.
Speaker 2:So tell us you know, you mentioned that they stay on this food until they are out of their malnourishment stage and then they go back to, I would assume, what their normal diet is. So how do we ensure that, when they go back to their normal diet, that they don't regress and become malnutrition again? Are there other programs out there helping these individuals get the right kinds of food that they need?
Speaker 4:So the wonderful thing about that is that you know when we check, when we've done surveys of children that have been recovered six months later, 98% are well nourished and 12 months later, 96% are well nourished. So recidivism isn't really in the cards so often. And the way that it's a bit hard to understand, because as an American you might think like if somebody's starving to death in your family, there must be total breakdown of the caring system. I mean this, this has got to be extraordinary. But the populations we work with, which are are very, very common, are the most common in Africa, are people who live on the edge and if everything pretty much goes right, their family is going to going to make it Okay. So so they haven't lost everything. They're living in a, you know, putting together a couple or three jobs, gardening, all the different things they do to make it, and most that works. That works for most people, that works for for 98 or 99% of the people. But if it doesn't work, if your child has two illnesses in six weeks, if you lose a part-time job, if there's flooding, if there's this, if there's that, any catastrophe puts you over the edge and there's no safety net. So what Project Pink Butter is doing is taking that child and putting them back away from that edge. And you know, sure, bad luck happens, but if bad luck, if you needed bad luck to happen three times to get you over the edge, but is this bad luck really going to happen again Another three times? No, and to try to make a bridge here between some of the things we've been talking about is that we have in 2016, we started treating malnourished pregnant women the food's a little different in a similar way, in 2016, we started treating malnourished pregnant women the food's a little different in a similar way, and now we are expanding that through this current Rotary initiative going to starve to death, but they were going to have a terrible outcome in their pregnancy and some serious medical complications themselves. So we have the opportunity to intervene in two, two for one or something in the project that we're able to bring.
Speaker 4:We don't try to rebuild facilities or build hospitals or health centers, and when we talk about clinic, we're really just talking about distribution activities. We're moving to a place once every two weeks, measuring, treating, and we'll be back there in two weeks. We measure again everyone who comes the first time. It comes back, they measure again. We measure again. Everyone who comes the first time comes back. They measure again. If you're malnourished, you keep getting more. If you're not, you're not. And then with the pregnant women the burden of pregnancy usually doesn't start getting better until they give birth, and then it amazingly gets. You know, not amazingly, but readily gets better. But the kids for severe, not amazingly but readily gets better. But the kids for severe, it's about six to eight weeks, some kids might be three weeks, some kids might be nine weeks but we're there for both.
Speaker 1:So what do you think? I mean, you've been working on this for a very long time. I don't know if you have the numbers for all that time, but how many children have you been able to affect and what is the impact over the years?
Speaker 4:Well, project Peanut Butter itself has seen certainly tens of millions of kids in our clinics. Now, in 2007, when I talked about, you know, moving that project forward, the UN agencies got together and said that home-based therapy with RUTF, the peanut butter-based food, was the best way to treat malnutrition. So that has been adopted worldwide and you know I mean. Last year, 7.2 million people excuse me, 7.2 million kids received that food. Now, that doesn't all come from Project Peanut Butter in any way, shape or form. Project Peanut Butter is pushing frontiers, particularly in remoter areas or areas with less access.
Speaker 1:And how integral has Rotary been in the success of your program.
Speaker 4:Absolutely Integral and you know, the part that that also may doesn't go get mentioned first anyway, is we have local rotary clubs that we are partners with right and and help us in a, I would say, month to month sort of way and they can like for for these. We have factories that make these foods. You know places of production, if you will, that Project Peanut Butter runs in Malawi, ghana, sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, and having our factory manager and some other leaders attend and be part of that Rotary group, being in a climate where, with other entrepreneurs, other people running enterprises, that amount of mentoring is also very valuable. It's not something that gets written down, it's not something that somebody is paying for with a donation, but I would say it is the primary source of training and mentoring for the leadership of our production facilities.
Speaker 2:Well, they get to see in action what the Rotarians are trying to do, and they continue to get that support 100% of the time, so we can help them move forward with what they need to have done. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, Arthur, you got voluntold and are now very involved and engaged in this project. Have you been out on any hands-on Project Peanut Butter opportunities? Are there any of those available? Are you looking to go at some time in the future? I know that was a lot of questions.
Speaker 3:Some time in the future, and the agreement between Dennis and I when I took over was that hopefully someday we can push for a global grant application for the Philippines. Oh, that would be lovely, I don't know what shape or form. I mean I will take instructions from Dr Maneri when that time comes. I mean I will take instructions from Dr Maneri at that, you know when that time comes. But that would be a personal vision as far as I'm concerned. But we got to get through the one that we're working on at the moment.
Speaker 2:You know, Judy, it sounds like this could be a great VTT opportunity to move it to the next level.
Speaker 1:Yes, maybe we'll talk to Niren in Niren's year and, arthur, you and I will go and see Dr Maneri in the Philippines.
Speaker 3:Dr Maneri said, anytime we wish to see him somewhere in the world.
Speaker 2:We can follow him around. We can follow him there you go. So well, what? What would you, uh, like to tell our viewers if they would like to participate in this and have a passion for this? How can they reach out and help you with this wonderful, wonderful project that you're doing? Do?
Speaker 4:you want to go first, yeah, the first thing I would say is a picture's worth a thousand words. It really is. The first thing I would say is a picture's worth a thousand words, it really is. You should go to wwwprojectpeanutbutterorg, look under the my Stories tab, look at the videos and picture yourself in that situation. That is how you can understand the problem the environment, the food, making the food. Two minutes, five minutes the longest one is 10 minutes and that completely puts you into that milieu. And then join us in helping with one of the projects. You can do that through the website too, but you know, the words that Arthur and I can add today pale with the story being told by the pictures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, arthur.
Speaker 3:Well, I would be remiss if I don't take this opportunity first of all, to really say thank you to the Rotarians in our district. I mean, the work that we have done over the years would not have been possible without the club's generosity, going back 2009, 2010, and to this day, and so I just hope that well of generosity will continue on and we will certainly be as rigorous as we possibly can in doing all the work required when we put all these global grant applications together. But Dr Maneri is right Visit the website, look at the pictures and the videos. Look at the pictures and the videos. You know, recently, when I first started work on this global grant, I shared with my club that you know, because this is my first grant that I'm putting together I'm so I'm knee deep in.
Speaker 3:You know all the logistics and you know am I doing it right? Is this the next step? Logistics, and you know, am I doing it right? Is this the next step? And it just felt almost impersonal because I was so focused on procedure. But then, when I was relaying that to the members of my club, I realized that you know when this grant is approved and the clinics are up and running, and we see the pictures and the videos of the women lining up to get prenatal services. I think that is exactly the moment that would hit me as to what we've been working on this past few months. I mean, women in areas where prenatal services would not have been available or possible had we not put the work together that we are now doing and just to see the you know the image of what that's going to look like on the day that the services start from our grant. I think I'll be crying a lot on that.
Speaker 1:That'll bring tears to the eyes. Definitely, definitely.
Speaker 2:So I have one last question, and that is can you give us an idea, Dr Venari, of what a hundred dollar contribution can do? How many children can that affect?
Speaker 4:That a hundred dollars can treat two and a half children. A hundred dollars can treat two and a half children. I want to also put add something to what Arthur was saying and what I think is very important for for our world today. I mean, the rotary is a place of optimism.
Speaker 4:I went to a rotary club here in the in Missouri a couple of weeks ago and it was a noon meeting. Like many of you, many, many, many, many times, I've gone to and shared a bit about project peanut butter. There were other people sharing about exchange students from brazil and this and that, and that is such a it's. It's an important perspective. It's not all about violence and conflicts and the end times are coming and political competitions and all these other things. That's not the whole story of our lives on this planet. And what I love about Rotary in a very broad way is they're still in the clubs, in their presentations, in the community work, maintaining optimism and living optimism and putting their resources where they talk about optimism it's. You know, we need it more than ever, right.
Speaker 1:Right, Especially in this day and time. Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we appreciate you both joining us today. We're looking forward to seeing this project go forward and sharing as it gets funded. I'm sure we'll have you both back when we can share the pictures and the videos of all the things that you're able to do with this particular grant and I'm sure many more that will come. Thank you so much and I'm sure many more that will come.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, thank you so much, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you being here and thank you for all the good work that you're all doing and continuing to create hope in the world and change lives one day at a time.
Speaker 1:So that wraps up this episode of Heroes of Hope. We are so happy that we have an audience out there listening. We want you to subscribe, share and tell your friends about the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope, because that's how we get the word out about the impact we're having in this world.