Into the breach: Women take leading role as men provide support
International Women’s Day: Maternal and childcare initiatives improve the health and nutrition of families in Tanzania
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When it comes to the division of labour at home, women tend to do the majority of the work — this is particularly true in the rural parts of African countries. Women are often left with all the household chores and are expected to participate in farming activities, while men typically don’t share the same burden.
If a man diverts from the traditional gender roles and does help with domestic work, he is stigmatized by the community or even called names such as the Swahili bushoke, which means “overpowered by his wife”. In some African cultures, men are even banned from entering the kitchen — it’s taboo.
The Boresha Lishe nutrition project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and Japan, works with government health facilities and rural communities in Dodoma and Singida regions in Tanzania to prevent stunting and treat moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children aged under 2. It also aims to promote good nutrition.
Rashid Abdallah often accompanies his pregnant wife Eunice Joram to her pre-natal visits at Chamwino Health Centre in Dodoma. When Eunice was 16 weeks’ pregnant with her second child, she enrolled in the project. A nutrition assessment was carried out with each visit, to provide valuable information on her nutrition status and identify any potential complications in her pregnancy.
In addition to this, Eunice received nutrition education and counselling as well as a monthly take-home ration of nutritious flour mix, fortified with essential vitamins and minerals. Rashid would help Eunice carry her bag and the flour mix, freeing her from carrying any heavy items on their walk back home.
‘Now that I have the knowledge of a balanced diet, I ensure that my wife and children eat well and not just eat to get full’
Rashid and Eunice regularly attended cooking demonstrations organized by the health facility. The sessions taught them how to diversify their diets using locally sourced foods. This allowed them to prepare healthier meals not just for Eunice, but for the entire family.
“Several times on my way back home from work I would buy nutritious food items for the family,” says Rashid. “Now that I have the knowledge of a balanced diet, I ensure that my wife and children eat well and not just eat to get full.”
Nutrition education
Like in other areas of Central Tanzania, people in Nduu village in Singida Region face challenges in maternal and child health due to limited access to health services. Some of the challenges include long distances from their home to the health facility, limited access to nutrition education and counselling, and poor child and maternal feeding practices.
Boresha Lishe engages community health workers in Nduu to work with community members and provide them with skills on maternal and infant feeding practices, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), management of village level savings and loans groups (commonly known as VICOBA), and diversification of diets through improved agricultural practices.
Amos Kalebi is a community member with experience and interest in agriculture and animal keeping. He was selected by members of his community in Nduu to support Boresha Lishe community interventions as an agriculture promoter.
Amos worked with a nutrition promoter to establish a care group compromising 30 mothers. The promoters meet with the group on a weekly basis and train them to diversify their meals through kitchen and community gardens consisting of matembele (sweet potato leaves), michicha (spinach) and sukuma wiki (collard greens), and through keeping livestock.
By integrating agriculture and nutrition, families can improve their dietary diversity, decreasing the rate of malnutrition among children. While most of the vegetables are consumed at the household level, some are sold at the local market. With an increase in their financial status, some families can even afford to send their children to school, while others venture into small family businesses.
Apart from promoting kitchen and community gardens, Amos supports the livestock component (poultry farming) of Boresha Lishe. This component is important to the project because chicken meat and eggs are a good source of protein among other nutritional benefits.
Through Boresha Lishe, Amos received 300 chicks to raise for 40 days. Once the chicks were big enough to move out of the brooder, he gave 290 of them to the group members to distribute among themselves, and kept 10 for himself. Amos is still raising his chicks and plans to order another 300 for egg production.
“The nutrition project has motivated me to start my own poultry business,” says Amos. “In the future, I would like to convert my four-acre land into a big poultry farm.”
