This purpose of this journal is to document advances in the fields of health, education, food, diet, and development. Each issue contains an overview of a high-priority subject touching the everyday life of children, mothers, and families. This double issue describes the Andes project, a food, diet, nutrition, and development program conducted in nine rural communities in the Ecuadorian Andes and coordinated between French agencies and the Ecuadorian government. The first section introduces the Andes Project, including how and why it came into being. The second section addresses the program's diagnosis process, including community participation, sharing of information, and attitudes during diagnosis. The third section examines the region's core crop--maize--including its growing, cultivation, storage, consumption, threats to its survival, and efforts for protection of the crop. The fourth section describes the region's general health situation and the program's organization of health activities, public health tools, and family health records. The fifth section describes research into the nutritional situation in Ecuador and the large public health problem of iron-deficiency anemia, and describes an Andes bread program designed to combat the condition. The sixth section explores problems of water supply, both quantity and quality, and the seventh section describes the region's educational and school situation and the Andes response. The eighth section discusses Andes economic enterprises, such as the production of maize for sale and the establishment of community shops. The ninth section addresses the program's efforts in training and education in food and diet. The final section consists of summary discussions on topics of consumption, pluridisciplinarity, social organization, and the process of change. (SD)