1. EXCLUSIVE BREAST FEEDING FROM ROSE KHAYEGA UMOJA SANGO LIKUYANI SUBCOUNTY KAKAMEGA COUNTY
Rose Khayega is the Vice chair of Umoja Sango AFS Grp from Sango, Likuyani Sub County, Kakamega county. Rose has a daughter Clara Andega a Form 3 Student who gave birth to a baby girl (Shalot Ayala) in the month of May 2020. As a mother, Rose was obviously disappointed but none the less determined that her daughter will not miss school. So she decided to take on the responsibility of raising her granddaughter (Shalot) so that her daughter would resume classes as soon as possible.
Rose was left to care for her granddaughter when her daughter was in attending class and would feed her cow’s milk even introduced other foods like porridge when Shalot was only three months. The child would brestfeed only when her mother, Clara was back from school. Like many of her peers Rose was following feeding practices she has seen in the community and did not know any better. If anything, she thought that Shalot will grow much stronger and healthier and even hit her milestones faster if she was fed on other foods (chakula nzito) early.
As fate would have it, Rose is part of a farmer group that is affiliated to KCDMS grantee selected to be trained on Agri Nutrition. The lead farmer Mr. Joshua Lwangu commenced the training with modules on nutrition and module 5 was of particular interest to Rose as it was topic on ‘feeding infants 0-6 months. Rose was very keen and her ears perked when lead farmer Joshua conveyed the importance of breastfeeding and the further group discussion ensued on the adverse effects of early introduction of other foods to an infant below six months. Armed with this information, Rose immediately cascaded the information to her daughter. Together they, worked out the best way to ensure the baby had enough breast milk to last her through the day until her mother returned from class. This was possible as in the module, they were taught on how to go about preserving breastmilk for an infant’s consumption.
Now Shalot is 6 months and a follow up visits to the clinic depict that her growth is on track and her weight exemplary. Now that Shalot is 6 months, Rose and Clara are now focused on applying the knowledge from module 6 on ‘appropriate complementary feeding for children 6-23months’.
2. Storage
Beatrice Murunga from Mutoma Women Group is our Lead farmer from Malava Sub County Kakamega County. She trained Mufutu Women Group, Bidii Women Group and Mutoma Women Group among other groups of Eskay Ltd.
After completing all the 14 Cards of Agri-Nutrition, Mutoma women and Bidii Women Group decided to Merge and Form One Group by the name Mutoma Agri-Nutrition Group. They will be Launching the group Officially on 18th January 2021.
Form the trainings, members have benefited a lot, like the storage technologies, Mrs. Murunga a member of Mutoma Women Group say she used to dust her Cereals using (Scania Super atelic) after harvesting before storing but it was not healthy and not effective. But after attending the classes on Agri-Nutrition she learned of the latest technologies of storing cereals she sent Emmanuel Eshitemi Officer in charge of Kakamega County the Storage Bags and she has now clean Maize and Beans for the family.
3. KITCHEN GARDEN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES
BEGGs Hospistal and Matunda Hospital CHVs groups have been very violent on training the agri-nutrition messages to the communities. On home best kitchen garden, they have followed up to ensure that families have their own vegetables from their farms rather than buying from the market because of hygiene.
4. Liberation Community Dev. Initiative (CBO)
The organization was launched in 2014, it has 6 groups. The CBO operates in the Malava Sub County, Esther Ndeya is the Chairperson and Lead Farmer. The CBO trains the beneficiary and follows up on serious implementations for members’ income and consumption. They have poultry, empresses Banana production, African Leafy Vegetables.
Here are some photos of Esther’s projects.
