My summer internship took place in Heredia, Costa Rica. I worked for the Ministry of Health in one of their Centers of Nutrition (CEN Barrio IMAS). CEN is part of a larger child health education program run by the Ministry of Health called Center for Education and Nutrition-Integrated Center for Child Health Center (CEN-CINAI). The CEN-CINAI is a government run organization that focuses on nutrition and development in low-income communities across Costa Rica. The CEN vision is to present low-income communities with services that correspond to their needs with equity and in a form that is responsible and organized. The mission focuses on children under the age of seven years, their families and communities who live below the national poverty line.

During the three month project in Costa Rica I worked daily at the CEN Barrio IMAS with children, two to six years of age, teaching nutrition, health education and general education. This included parent education meetings, which focused on health issues facing the population, such as dengue fever, nutrition and physical abuse. I ran a weekly support group for teenage mothers where we discussed nutrition, self-esteem, discipline,
breast-feeding and childbirth. A curriculum based on this pilot group was developed so that the Ministry of Health in Costa Rica can continue running the support groups in other communities throughout the country.

The final project was realized with the community association in Barrio IMAS.  With help from the community I created a curriculum that focused on some of the issues that the community association was facing such as making decisions, leading meetings and
working in groups. The Ministry of Health will use this curriculum at other CEN centers to strengthen the community associations.

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