7 April, 2017
Most often in Africa, the smaller the village and remote it is the more it is synonymous with poverty and malnutrition. This is not the case with the small village of Rondo, south eastern Tanzania where women in that community have simply refused to watch their children die or suffer from stunting due to malnutrition by educating their communities to adopt a healthy eating lifestyle. They walk up to seven kilometers conducting door-to-door calls on families or giving talks at health centers where women usually congregate. These 6 women are undertaking these life changing activities in addition to their demanding daily chores which include tilling the land, fetching firewood, preparing food for their families and taking care of their children.
Scholastica Nguli, who is the founder of the Rondo Women’s Development Organisation, has been leading the women.
She says: “This idea began after joining the Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania (PANITA) where our organization was invited to a capacity building meeting organized PANITA in 2013; the emphasis of that meeting was on maternal and young children feeding practices. At the end of the session; PANITA called upon participants of the meeting to cascade that knowledge to the community in their respective locations.”
“Lack of awareness on breastfeeding issues was among of the factor behind huge burden of children malnutrition in Rondo ward, that’s why we decided to spread that knowledge to health facilities, household visits and public meetings”, she adds.
Graca Machel Trust promotes good nutrition and works closely with PANITA, a network of 300 Civil society organizations. Good nutrition fforms the bedrock of an educated, healthy and productive society. In Africa, lasting effects on the cognitive and physical development of the African child and their families has led to the stunted development of societies. To ensure that nutrition is placed high on the agenda – to ultimately end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture in Africa, the Nutrition Programme engages in advocacy for nutrition as a developmental priority.
World Health Day
As we celebrate World Health Day the women of Rondo are a reminder that fighting malnutrition which causes stunting in children in most parts of the country can be done by anyone. According to the Tanzania Demographic and health survey 2015-16, 34% of children under the age of five are short for their age (stunted), a sign of chronic malnutrition. Stunting result to severe consequences on the physical and brain development of the child and affects the economy due to loss of productivity. According to the World Bank, Africa can gain up to 10% of the GDP if we invested in nutrition. It says for every dollar invested in ending malnutrition, 10 dollars can be earned in return.
The women of Rondo have become an epitome of doing what is right at a time when most societies wait for governments to fight malnutrition alone. Often, many societies visualize malnutrition as too big a problem that they think there is nothing they can do to change it. Yet the action by Rondo women demonstrate that there are solutions within the reach of communities to end malnutrition.
All interventions count; from breastfeeding, washing hands before eating food, keeping a clean environment, drinking clean safe water. There is no one specific approach but communities have to adopt approaches that best help them to accomplish significant change. The example of Rondo show that collective strategies have a great impact to ending malnutrition in our communities.
Their work fits perfectly with this year’s World Health Day theme, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) which simply is not about health care and financing the health system of a country only but encompasses all components of the health systems. These can be healthcare providers that deliver health services to people, health facilities communications networks, health technologies, information systems, quality assurance mechanisms to governance and legislation and individual efforts to ensure that communities live healthy.
This does not mean that governments can take a back seat. They still have leading roles to ensure the pledges they agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to advance health for all and end all forms of malnutrition by 2030 are implemented. Both communities and governments need to ensure that current and future generations live to their full potential. Let this World Health Day be a cue that taking responsibility is the only way to ending all forms of malnutrition in Africa.
ABOUT:
The Graça Machel Trust is an advocacy organisation that works across the continent to drive positive change across women’s and children’s rights, as well as governance and leadership. Through our support of local initiatives and connecting key stakeholders at a regional, national and sub-national level, we help to catalyse action where it is needed. By using our convening power, the Trust seeks to amplify the voices of women and children in Africa; influence governance; and promote women’s contributions and leadership in the economic social and political development of Africa.
Issued by
Christine Muyama: Nutrition Programmes Officer, Graça Machel Trust
Graça Machel Trust Communications Department
Email: info@gracamacheltrust.org website: www.gracamacheltrust.org/new
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.