By Katie MacNeill
I have been involved with Farmers Helping Farmers for the last four years, and I was excited when given the opportunity to visit Kenya for a third time with the organization. I have been here for almost two weeks now working as a nutrition volunteer alongside James, the community nutritionist in Kenya. Our work’s divided between dairy clubs, women’s groups, and primary schools.
With the schools in previous years, we provided nutrition education to the grade 5 students through nutrition clubs. This year we are changing to teacher-led nutrition education to help our messages reach more individuals and become more sustainable. With this change the teachers will now educate the students on our messages about gardening, hygiene and food safety, protecting zinc and iron in foods, and filling your plate with colour.
Following the classroom lessons, they will do practical lessons allowing the children to garden many nutritious and easily accessible vegetables, and cook traditional meals while incorporating many of the things they were taught to grow. This will be done using the 4K clubs, which stand for Kuungana, Kunfanya, Kusaidia, Kenya. Translated this means Unite, Act and Help Kenya. These clubs are implemented in schools to help educate children on farming skills, sustainability and entrepreneurship to help fight hunger, improve nutrition and enforce positive attitudes towards agriculture.
We have visited three schools that have implemented this so far. The teachers are confident and thankful that they have the opportunity to take this next step. With the practical lessons starting, the students have shown a great deal of pride in the vegetables they have started to grow along with the recipes and nutrition messages they have been taught. I am excited to see the impact that this change has on the sustainability and reach of nutrition education in primary schools!
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