Meet Bitti Devi from India

Catholic Relief Services’ mother and child health programs in India and around the world train health workers to care for families with young children. The health workers encourage expectant mothers to eat extra food and take vitamin supplements, and they measure the growth and weight of babies after they are born. This program reflects the Catholic social teaching principle Option for the Poor.

My name is Bitti Devi and I have five children, three girls and two boys. I live in a small village in India with my husband, children, and mother-in-law. We have a water buffalo that gives milk. A few times each week my husband sells the milk in the market for 30 rupees (about 75 cents). With this money we must feed all of our children. It is not enough. A bag of rice that might last us a week costs 100 rupees. We can’t afford to buy beans, and even though our buffalo gives milk, we can’t drink it ourselves—what else would my husband sell in the market?

My youngest daughter is named Kajal. She is one and a half, but she can’t walk and is very small for her age. There is a health worker in our village named Shanti who was trained by CRS to help mothers and their babies. Shanti weighed Kajal and told us that she needs more food. Shanti now gives us double rations of a nutritious powdered food from the government every week, and she showed us how to prepare it. I hope my daughter will get bigger and stronger soon.