KISUMU, Kenya Oct 9 \u2013 In the flood-prone village of Nyamkebe, in Nyando Sub County, Kisumu, where families often go to bed on empty stomachs and homes are regularly swallowed by rising waters, education once took a back seat to survival.<\/p>\n
Parents kept their children at home, not out of neglect, but out of necessity, because there was nothing to eat, and no reason to walk their children to school on an empty stomach.<\/p>\n
But everything began to change with one simple act, a warm plate of food.<\/p>\n
But everything began to change with one simple act, a warm plate of food.<\/p>\n
Perez Odida, the dedicated ECD teacher and Centre Manager at Nyamkebe ECD Centre, a public school, has witnessed this transformation firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were only 55 children at the start,\u201d she recalls. \u201cBut once the feeding program began, our enrollment rose to nearly 85. Even the children who were stuck at home, they\u2019re now in school, because they know there is food.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many of these children, the school feeding program is not just an extra incentive, it\u2019s a lifeline.<\/p>\n
In a community hit hard by poverty and repeated flooding, food is scarce, and balanced nutrition is almost impossible to access at home.<\/p>\n
But thanks to the feeding program supported by the county government of Kisumu, children of school age do not shy away from registering for lessons at the school.<\/p>\n
Odida says due to the rising poverty and lack of employment, specifically for mothers who once depended on casual farm work in the rice fields, now taken over by mechanized farming, many families are now unable to feed their children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school meal becomes the only reliable source of nutrition for the day,\u201d said Odida.<\/p>\n
She says hunger is a silent enemy of education, noting that when children are hungry, they struggle to focus, participate, or retain what they learn.<\/p>\n
With a full stomach, she adds, children are more attentive, active, and engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you teach a topic, you will find that you have almost everybody there. And even tomorrow, they will come again because they know that immediately after lessons, there is something to be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Rael Mwando, the Nutrition Services Coordinator for Kisumu County, most communities in the flood prone areas often face the double burden of poverty and food insecurity.<\/p>\n
Mwando, spoke to Capital FM News in Nyando, during a vibrant Health and Nutrition Hackathon, an event supported by the French Embassy, UNICEF, Kenya Red Cross and the County Government of Kisumu.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just an event,\u201d Rael explained. \u201cIt\u2019s part of a larger program on nutrition resilience that we\u2019re implementing in Kabonyo Kanyagwal Ward in Nyando Sub County.<\/p>\n
The theme for the day, Healthy Me, Healthy You<\/em>, Resilient Community, echoed across the Nyando Resource Centre Hall, as children from local ECD centers performed poems, skits, and songs on the importance of healthy eating.<\/p>\n Each school also showcased creative menus using locally available foods, grounded in the four essential food groups.<\/p>\n \u201cWe realized that if we instill good nutrition messages through these young ones, then we can be able to change the future generation.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about the real impact of nutrition, or lack of it on children, Rael was clear and direct.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we have good nutrition among these young children, we\u2019ll have good cognitive development. That means they\u2019ll perform well in school, and when they do, they\u2019ll become productive adults in future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She went further to explain the consequences of poor nutrition among children.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they are not well nourished, their immune system weakens. You\u2019ll find a child in and out of school, due to sickness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rael pointed out the ripple effect, a sick child means the mother, often the primary caregiver, can\u2019t work or farm, reducing the family\u2019s productivity and income.<\/p>\n She also took a moment to advocate for the use of fortified foods, those enhanced with essential micronutrients like iodine, vitamin A, and iron, especially now that some Kenyans remain skeptical of such products.<\/p>\n \u201cFortification is good. It helps curb micronutrient deficiency,\u201d she explained. \u201cTake salt for example, it\u2019s fortified with iodine. Previously we had a lot of Goiter cases, but now they\u2019ve gone down because of iodized salt.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Hackathon event, Pauline Odhiambo, a nutritionist, is leading efforts to educate both schools and families on how to protect children\u2019s health for future endeavors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe productivity of these children in future starts strongly at the breastfeeding stage for the first six months, or else we will have a weaker man power in the coming years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Odhiambo says how the mother eats when she is pregnant matters a lot for the development of the baby in the womb.<\/p>\n She noted that she is working closely with many poor households in the area to understand food groups.<\/p>\n With floods destroying crops in the area, many families are left with little more than maize or porridge to feed their children.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are teaching parents to move away from the idea that a full stomach means a fed child,\u201d she said. \u201cIf a baby eats porridge every day with no variety, they will still be malnourished. That\u2019s why we now teach about food groups and dietary diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n Pauline teaches families to combine legumes like beans and groundnuts with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and animal proteins, even if in small amounts.<\/p>\n She encourages the use of kitchen gardens, especially those using vertical farming or sacks, to grow nutrient-rich greens even when land is scarce or flooded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be rich to give your child the right food,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cYou just need the knowledge.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KISUMU, Kenya Oct 9 \u2013 In the flood-prone village of Nyamkebe, in Nyando Sub County, Kisumu, where families often go to bed on empty stomachs and homes are regularly swallowed by rising waters, education once took a back seat to survival. Parents kept their children at home, not out of neglect, but out of necessity, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}