by Colleen Walton
UPEI nutrition interns, Enya Burnet and Bridget Keedwell, and I (Colleen Walton) arrived in Kenya early May along with the veterinary team as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Scholars project.
After our adventures in and around Nairobi and travel to Kiirua we were delighted to meet the fourth member of our team, Miriam Muthama. Miriam is a fourth-year nutrition student at Kenyatta University who is on her 3-month attachment with Farmers Helping Farmers. The work of the nutrition team is to assess the nutritional quality of the meals served to students at partner schools. Commendations and recommendations will be made individually to each school based on the assessment findings.
As part of the Gender Responsive One Health Project, the team will conduct school hygiene and food safety follow up assessments. Hand and dishwashing, rodent prevention, kitchen and school environment to keep foods safe are the main areas assessed. It is amazing to me how much students to help out with the school’s operations such as dishwashing and filling handwash stations with water.
Bridget, Enya and Miriam are applying their academic knowledge and learning new skills for these practical assessments as well as cross-cultural learning. Miriam is a great asset to this team and surely helps the Canadians navigate the Kenyan context!
The team is having a lot of fun interacting with the young and older students who are always interested to meet and greet the muzungos.
The student team is working together well to conduct these assessments, analyse the information collected and prepare and present the information to the Head Teachers at the schools. Each school is very unique and in some cases the feedback is a bit difficult!
The QES project includes two Master of Science in Nutrition students. Glory Karimi attended UPEI and successfully defended her MSc research in April 2026. Her research evaluated the effect of the FHF Student Nutrition Clubs on students knowledge, attitudes and practices.
Shahleen Jemesis is an QES MSc student at Kenyatta University. She is completing her first year of courses and successfully defended her research proposal with the KU Department of Health Sciences. Shahleen will evaluate the impact of text-message information boosters on the knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy of Community Health Promoters. You may meet here in PEI later this year!
The team in Kenya will also support teachers to lead Nutrition Clubs at primary schools, provide nutrition training for a second group of Community Health Promoters, and lead a train-the-trainers with a women’s group and help them to deliver training and prepare “super” githeri.
Weekends are an opportunity for other adventures, such as walking to the dam and waterfall in Nyambene Hills and a safari to Samburu National Reserve.
Stay tuned for updates from the team!
#qescholars
This important work of Farmers Helping Farmers is made possible with funding from Global Affairs Canada through the Gender Responsive One Health Project with Alinea International
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