Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation - Case Study Example

April 5, The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation P O Box – 41355 Abu Dhabi – UAE Tel:  +97126814700 Fax: +9716816571 email: zadfou@zayed.org.ae To whom it may concern: The staff of Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation is delighted to present this application to The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation for a grant of $51,000. The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation will organize weekly nutrition classes for underprivileged Egyptian families that prepare their own meals. Classes will also be held to promote self management for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes. The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation mission is to provide economical deprived Egyptian families with the nutritional knowledge to supply their families nutritionally fit meals. Another part of this mission is to provide the same nutritional knowledge to patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes. Children suffering from malnutrition need to have the meals prepared with the most nutrients to prevent growth stunts. Adults need to have enough nutrients to prevent basic starvation. A nutrition specialist, medical consultant, and program assistant will be on hand to help volunteers teach weekly classes on how to make nutritionally rich meals with the limited supplies of food available. The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization that will use monies donated or given as grants to teach Egyptian families how to create nutritionally balanced meals. A class will be held in the Minya and Sohag regions weekly. The Minya and Sohag regions were chosen since these are the poorest regions in Egypt. By creating nutritional awareness, hopefully the malnutrition and starvation rates will drop. Due to your dedication to The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation’s dedication to the needy around the world, we truly look forward to working with you as a partner in this desperate endeavor. Your grant of $50,000 will help unfortunate Egyptians learn how to meet their nutritional needs with foods available to them. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at (333) 333-3333. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Executive Director EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The staff of Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation courteously appeals to The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation of a grant in the amount of $50,000 for start up costs of our organization. Your donation will help disadvantage Egyptians the tools to cook nutritionally rich meals using the food at their disposal. The World Food Programme reports “Egypt is a low-income, food-deficit country, with 19.6 percent of the population – almost 14.2 million people – living below the lower poverty line, on less than US $1/day.” These individuals living below the lower poverty line are not receiving nutritionally rich meals. Although Egypt has a food subsidy program, the meals prepared do not meet the nutritional needs of the Egyptian families. Our service will offer to educate poorer Egyptians on how to make nutritious meals with the food available to them. Although our group is just starting out, an experienced staff will be available. I am the executive director. The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation also has a nutrition specialist, medical consultant, and program assistant. As our organization grows we plan on adding more nutritional specialists and volunteers. The positions filled in our group do not receive compensation for their services. The monies donated go toward educational handouts, space rented for the classes, curriculum, travel, and so forth. My staff and I donate our time freely. The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation is a beginning group, but we are all educated in our various endeavors. In order to account to our donors, an extensive accounting program has been created. A yearly audit will be completed with full disclosure to the public and our donors. Our goals, missions, and accomplishments will also be disclosed in a timely fashion. Biyearly reports will be given. The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation contribution of $50,000 will provide travel to the Minya and Sohag region. Curriculum and handouts on nutritionally balanced meals will also be paid for out of your contribution. Space rented for the classes will also be paid for by your contribution. Your $50,000 dollars will fund this project for two weekly classes in different regions for one year. As more donations come in, our operation will expand. However, until that time your contribution will fund our operations for two hour long weekly classes. Due to your dedication to The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian foundation’s dedication to the needy around the world, we truly look forward to working with you as a partner in this desperate endeavor. Your grant of $50,000 will help unfortunate Egyptians learn how to meet their nutritional needs with foods available to them. Thank you for your deliberation of our application. STATEMENT OF THE NEED “A government-appointed committee for combating the H5N1 and H1N1 viruses--known respectively as bird and swine flu--decided Thursday to ban the sale of live poultry nationwide, starting in July. According to Environment Minister Maged George, live poultry will be gradually phased out to be replaced by frozen poultry produced by licensed slaughterhouses” reports Mona Yassin. Since poor farmers rely on chickens for food and eggs, the culling of these animals will deprive rural Egyptians that cannot afford to buy chicken. This will create a poultry and egg void for disadvantaged Egyptians. This important source of protein will be reduced for poor Egyptians. Sarah Marquer reports “Bread riots in April 2008 and the dramatic increase in global food prices over the past few years beg the question: Can Egypt’s population afford to buy the food it needs? Well-publicized problems with wheat imports illuminate the government’s failure to ensure food safety as well as the country’s insufficient production of the high-demand crop. After all, the average Egyptian consumes 180 kilograms of wheat a year, compared to the worldwide average of 90, and Egypt’s poor rely on the country’s bread subsidy program just to be able to eat at all.” Thus bread is the poor Egyptian main staple. Getting Egyptians to add protein, vegetables, and fruits to this bread is the challenge. It can be done, but new ideas need to be presented in order to change the current situation. "By 2010, there will be approximately 5 million diabetics in Egypt, in addition to 2.2 million pre diabetes patients," said Professor Morsi Arab, former chairman of the International Diabetes Federation Eastern Mediterranean and Middle-East (EMME) region. Diabetes is especially devastating to individuals living in poverty. This is due to lack of education and nutrition. The number one deterrent for diabetes is the proper diet. Many poor Egyptians do not know how to eat in order to take care of their diabetes. Marquer also states “The lack of food security in Egypt is clear. Hamza notes that many of the 40 million people in Egypt who live below the poverty line suffer from chronic malnutrition, often resulting in iron and vitamin A deficiencies, and anemia. She points out that 29 percent of Egyptian children aged five or younger suffer from stunted growth.” The need to help poverty stricken Egyptians make the most nutritionally of the food they have access to is vital. This project will make Egyptians healthier, but prevent the slow starving throughout a poverty stricken life. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES In order to address the Egyptian nutritional need, the overall goals of Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation are: Hold one class weekly in two separate regions of Egypt; Minya and Sohag. Provide nutritionally based recipes that can be easily made with food available. Help educate poverty stricken Egyptians with diabetes how to control or maintain their diabetes through diet. Concentrate nutrition classes on families that make their own meals. In order to reach these goals, the follow objectives must be met 2010: 1. Raise $100,000 in grants and donations in order to expand weekly sessions from two to four. 2. Recruit more volunteers with nutritional backgrounds. 3. Recruit more clients to attend nutrition classes. 4. Find more Egyptian recipes that are nutritionally fit. 5. Create partnerships with hospitals in an effort to educate chronically ill individuals and diabetics by referrals. 6. Raise awareness in the communities about the nutrition classes. METHODS Classes that have recipes will be the center of the program. High protein, fiber, and iron recipes like the one for Falafel will be given on handouts and lectured through oral reports. An example recipes are: Falafel recipe First soak chickpeas overnight. Then blend chickpeas with garlic, green onions, coriander, cumin, freshly ground pepper, and egg. (If no egg, just mix the other ingredients together.) Shape into balls or patties and fry over medium heat till golden brown. Use flour or egg as a binding agent while shaping falafel balls. Serve falafel with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Yogurt sauce: Blend plain yogurt, pepper, mint, garlic and salt till smooth. Recipe for relish: Chop tomatoes, cucumber and mint leaves. Mix with plain yogurt and season with mint leaves, salt and pepper. Sauté chopped onions and garlic. Blend it once it has cooled. Add soaked chickpeas along with seasoning such as cilantro, parsley and cayenne. Add fresh lemon juice. Knead the mixture to form patties. Grill the patties for a healthy nutritious meal. Ethnic Egyptian recipes with high nutritional value are going to be encouraged. These recipes will be low cost in an effort to meet the needs of our clients. EVALUATION In order to provide a measurement of our goals and client satisfaction, we will diligently watch our program. Surveys will be distributed to our staff and clients in an effort to see where improvement is needed. Complaints hopefully will not happen, but if they do careful consideration will be taken to rectify the problems. A Likert Scale questionnaire will be made for all clients to fill out if they want to participate. Open ended questions would also be asked. Example questions would be: 1. I found these classes to be extremely helpful. A. strongly agree B. agree C. neutral D. disagree E. strongly disagree 2. The class was interesting. A. strongly agree B. agree C. neutral D. disagree E. strongly disagree 3. I would change things about this class. A. strongly agree B. agree C. neutral D. disagree E. strongly disagree 4. If you would change things, what would you change? All questionnaires and surveys will be summarized for the public and benefactors. Another means of evaluation is to monitor the community statistics and compare them with statistics from families using the nutrition education program. For example, child weight, body mass index, and iron counts. All of this can be done through voluntarily given access to medical records to our medical consultant. The statistics will speak for themselves on the success of our program. PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability for this program will occur through applications of grants, donations, and volunteers. Grants such as yours can give our group the funds to conduct the classes for a set amount of time, but in order for our organization to grow donations and volunteers are a must. Fundraising in Egypt and abroad would be conducted. All of the monies and volunteers would be accounted in our biyearly audit. Another way to ensure sustainability would be recipes from nutritionists themselves. A website will be created in the near future where Egyptian recipes can be submitted for classes and interested volunteers and clients. The most important goal is to achieve a realistic nutrition balance with the food available, culture, and rich in nutrition. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND The Egyptian Nutritional Education Foundation does not have a rich background. However a need has arisen that needs a solution. I am willing to organize with my staff the solution to the need of poor Egyptians not being able to cook nutritionally rich food due to lack of knowledge, or tradition. No one should starve or be malnutrition, especially in a country like Egypt. This organization wants to prevent Egyptians from dying or having a quality of life. By providing nutrition counseling classes to the impoverished Egyptians and diabetics, the need to help the Egyptians help themselves will be fulfilled. I hope this grant proposal has met with your approval. My goal was to answer all your questions. If any more questions arise, please contact me. We are looking forward to working with you. Read More