With funding from Baker Health, on-the-ground support from the Anglican Diocese of Niassa in Mozambique, and a church reaching out to its community, beliefs and attitudes about nutrition are changing in the community of Chapitas. This slow and critical work is done person by person, with community members learning, applying, and then sharing nutritional advice that is making a real difference in the lives of children and families there. Here is the story of one of those changed minds changing the minds of others.

Learning

One day Helen saw that some people in her village were receiving nutrition training. She went to watch, even though she wasn’t one of the people selected to attend (typically one person from every tenth house is selected). Standing in the back, Helen listened intently to the teaching about three different kinds of food with different functions: strengthening, protecting, building. She learned that food is critical to a child’s physical and intellectual development. At the end of the first day, she signed up to become a counselor. She went home and told her husband about it. He encouraged her to attend the rest of the week. “Even if I didn’t get food there, I wanted to learn,” she says.

Sharing

After the initial training, Helen started going from house to house to share what she had learned. The goal was to share with ten houses near her. “Some of the people didn’t want to listen much,” she laughs “but eventually they listened to me.” With ongoing training Helen soon learned about things like breastfeeding and food frequency. She shared what she learned with her neighbors. Today, the neighbors talk about what Helen has taught them: the importance of eating well during pregnancy, how vital good nutrition is during the first 1000 days of a child’s life, and the functions of different foods.

Applying

Helen did not just tell others. She started by making changes in her own household. Her family now eats soy, fish, meat, beans, groundnuts, vegetables. Some of those items have to be purchased, but many are readily available. Thanks to the simple change of combining different kinds of foods, she and her husband can see that their children are growing better. There are big differences between their four children and other kids. “In the past, I didn’t think much about feeding the children. I did what I learned from my parents, and fed my children just to satisfy their hunger, and nothing else. Before, I wouldn’t feed the kids until lunch, unless we happened to have some nsima left over from the day before,” explains Helen. “Now I understand my kids might need food at other times. I can give them banana, papaya, or orange.”

Insights from the family

Helen’s ten-year-old daughter Aidinha is a bit shy. She likes to design houses and wants to stay home when she grows up. She loves the taste of the porridge she gets now, enriched with groundnuts, beans, soya, or fish. Her mother learned how to prepare it during the cooking demonstration.

Helen’s husband explains: “Since my wife learned about base, protector, and builder food groups, we have seen a big change. Before, the health center staff would tell us our children were underweight. Our children weigh the right amounts now. I like the flavor of the food now that we add fish and vegetables. It hasn’t changed the cost much because we use locally available things, like nutritious leaves.”

Challenges

Helen is now learning about other health topics beyond nutrition. While the lesson to enrich porridge to make it more nutritious is an easy one for her to teach, some of the concepts she shares seem more difficult for people to apply. For example, very few people take their sick loved ones to the hospital, which might be far away and is seen as a strange novelty. Instead, everyone seems to prefer a nearby traditional healer. This leads to many deaths and permanent injuries.

Helen sometimes wonders to herself: “What should I do when people don’t want to listen to me? Should I go to other places?” Instead of being grateful and encouraging, some people in her community criticize her for doing this work without getting paid for it. This can be discouraging. But Helen plans to continue anyway.  “I hope to do more and bigger things to see more changes in my community,” she declares. “My job is not finished. I want to continue until everyone is practicing the things I taught them.”

Helen gives the gifts of time and knowledge to her community.  What are we giving?

Prayer Requests from the Sywulka Family

Praise:

  • Some rains have started
  • The big evaluation in Mozambique went smoothly
  • New staff members strengthen our team

Pray for:

  • More progress in language learning
  • Restful holidays for our team
  • Congolese refugees entering Zambia

Blessings,

Steve Sywulka

Team Leader
World Renew South Africa