Nutrition Workshop

Today, we went to Ober Kamoth with Steph for a IYCF session . These sessions entail educating mothers about feeding  children healthy and nutritious food.  Sally was supposed to meet us there around 10 am but we didn’t see her till 11 am (again, Kenyan time).  So while we waited, we got a chance to look around the health centre her arrival.  We met a nurse named Lilian and she said she lives right beside us.  Hopefully, we can run in to her again so we can ask her more questions about pre-post natal care for the grant we received.  Also, I am hoping I get a chance to shadow one of the nurses before I leave.  

We encouraged everyone to go to VCT to know their HIV status

The workshop went well. There were around 20 mothers who came to the workshop. Sally showed them how to make enriched porridge, “nuuka”.  One can put in any types of soft fruit such as avocados and bananas to enrich the flavour. This nuuka had banana in it and Rashma and I helped to sieve through the banana to mix it in with the nuuka.  Sally then gave it to the children who were there so they can taste it. They really seemed to be enjoying it.  Knowing that most families have a hard time even providing one banana to their children, it was happy to see the children eating.  Yesterday, I realized that I had some left over loaf I purchased from Amsterdam.  Since it was old and stale, of course I didn’t think about eating it. I was about to throw it out and then remembered that I probably shouldn’t be doing that.  I asked Mama Siprose what I should do with it and she said I should never throw food out because if I do, one day, food is not going to be there for you.  She asked if she could have it to give it to her granddaughter. I handed to her feeling guilty because of my initial thought and also because I was giving stale bread to her grand daughter.  I felt like an extremely spoiled individual. 

Sally and Steph, making nuuka

On our way back to the Bank, Sally told us a story about her sister in law who had beautiful twin girls.  Her sister in law is HIV positive.  When she gave birth she had to receive a caesarean section due to some complications and she ended up staying at the hospital for one extra week. At that time, Sally took care of the babies, forcing the mom to feed them breast milk even if she didn’t want the possibility of passing HIV to her children.  When the mother returned home, she stopped feeding the children breast milk.  Within 6 weeks, both children died due to malnutrition.  Sally said her sister in law killed her beautiful children because she was so stubborn. I am uncertain of what was going through the mother’s mind at that time but all she wanted to do was to avoid giving HIV to her children which lead them to their demise.  Education is definitely needed in this area. From my knowledge (I have to do more research on this), it is best to feed the baby breast milk even if the mother is HIV.  She must stay on her antiretrovirals and also talk to health professionals to see what options are available for her child.  The child may have to go on antiretrovirals as well.  Formula is another option but it is more risky because it is less nutritious than breast milk and also they have to be really cautious of where the water is coming from.  It is unsafe for the baby formula is made from contaminated, dirty water.  Also, not every one can afford formula.  

 1. Malaria

Community Strategy 

We finally got to talk to Maurice even though it was very .  Before we could even talk about our projects, he started talking about how all teams need to meet because we want all the projects to be sustainable.  There was a lot of talk about money, and lack of funding to make everything happen.  We discussed about meeting up with the zonal officer but without much progress.  We notified him that we will be meeting up with the CHW tomorrow to shadow a polio vaccination campaign.  Before we could boil down to the points, the econ team came for their board of directors training and we had to cut it short.  We’re supposed to meet again tomorrow.  I hope this actually happens.