// Café Infantil or Children's Nutritional Program's aim is to address vitamin, mineral, and protein deficiencies in children during their period of greatest mental and physical development. Café Infantil operates in the rural community of Balgue in south-west Nicaragua where malnutrition is a limiting factor in the mental and physical development of school-age children. In the three to six-year age range, the program is currently helping 70 children, six days a week, with a daily serving of fresh milk, eggs, multivitamins, tooth brushing* and sanitation education.

The program is funded by project Bona Fide and is operated jointly by Project Bona Fide and a community board of three local women (concerned with community health and hygiene), as well as the volunteer labor of the receiving children's parents. The program began in July 2005 with 20 children and has been embraced and supported by the local community. This is evident in the consistent volunteer labor of parents, the increased number of children in the program, and ultimately their drastically improved health. Our greatest challenge is economic and logistical. Basically, "how can we find funding and build infrastructure to serve more community members?"

Our approaches to nutritional deficiencies work with both short and long-term projects employing the concepts of: 'giving a fish' and 'showing one how to fish'. The long-term vision is to have the nutritional diversity necessary to support the food needs of the program grown within and by the community. Project Bona Fide is helping to establish tree nurseries, nutritional gardens, and offering educational courses to create the staples and the autonomy necessary for the future of this and other isolated communities.

*The program has on ongoing in-kind donation program with Vitamin Angel and The American Dental Association to supply the children's multi vitamins and toothbrushes and paste. Our current program costs $50 to give a child their basic nutritional needs for six months. Even a small donation could last a lifetime.

This program accepts monetary and in kind donations of materials and volunteer hours.