Nutritional recovery centers

The nutritional recovery centers are an intermediate stage between the specialized treatment of a malnourished child in a health institute and the child’s home.
Nutre-Hogar began its operations in April 1989, with one Center located in the area of Pedregal, corregimiento de Juan Diaz, Panama Province, with capacity for 10 children. In November 1991, it moves to a place specially designed to accommodate 50 children. Since its opening, this center has been fully occupied. Afterwards, in 1991, the Veraguas and Chiriqui Nutre-Hogar Centers, each with a capacity for 50 children, were created. After this, Recovery Centers were created in Cocle, Los Santos Herrera and Bocas del Toro.

These Centers receive malnourished children from all across the country, who are identified or detected at the children’s hospital, Health Centers, Panamanian Institute for Special Rehabilitation, etc. Once a case is identified, a doctor has to certify it before proceeding with the child’s enrollment.

The requirements to register a child in Nutre-Hogar are as follows:

	Children must be between 1 and 5 years of age. Only in rare cases exceptions are made and older children are inscribed.
	The child must suffer from primary malnutrition, principally in third degree.
	The family’s good will and willingness to participate actively in the child’s recovery during his or her stay at the Center.
	Written and explicit consent from the family by filling in the admission forms and accepting its rules.
	Prior to admission, it is necessary to have the pediatric, nutritional and socio-economic report as well as the reference sheet that will be provided by Nutre-Hogar.