NEWS & REPORT

Rwanda: Eggs are latest weapon against malnutrition

By Rodrigue Rwirahira

For Health Minister Agnes Binagwaho, 2012 must be the year of eliminating malnutrition in Rwanda; this is of capital importance, she says, because an unhealthy diet in an individual or at the community level impacts negatively on people's well-being as well as on society as a whole.

According to the Minister, while the health sector should take the lead in sensitizing the population on appropriate nutrition, it should be a multi-sector approach aimed at changing the ways families grow food, then cook and serve it. This is even more important for vulnerable sections of the population such as pregnant women and young children.

Achieving that most often doesn't require complex dietary regimes. For instance, when it comes to babies and infants, Binagwaho points out that mothers should just ensure to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months, and then continue to do so for up to 24 months while adding appropriate food. That should be combined with regular growth monitoring of children between 0 and 5 years to make sure appropriate nutritional support is given to malnourished and sick children.

Simple as these guidelines may seem, all too often they are not followed. That is why Minisante puts a lot of emphasis on grassroots sensitization, and to achieve this other public institutions including Minagri, Minaloc, Migeprof and Mineduc have come on board. For example, Minaloc and Minagri sensitize the population on the importance of having kitchen gardens to provide the necessary vitamins and minerals, and raising chickens for eggs.

"We are sensitizing families to think of the importance of a complete balanced diet," Binagwaho explains. "That is why we have now embarked on a program to ensure every child gets two eggs per week, in addition to other nutrition programs such as one cup of milk per child."

The eggs promotion indeed adds to a growing list of programs aimed at combating malnutrition: one cow per family; one daily cup of milk per child both at school and at home, as well as a program providing meals at school; the promotion of kitchen gardens; and agakono k'umwana, a program to ensure children are well-nourished based on a Rwandan tradition where food for children was always kept apart in a specific pot.

All these programs notwithstanding, according to the Rwanda nutrition policy document the nutritional situation in the country remains persistently poor. "So far, we are only halfway in our combat to eliminate malnutrition," Binagwaho admits herself.

And according to Unicef, for the last two decades malnutrition has been a significant public health problem contributing to high infant, child and maternal mortality. According to the organization's framework of causes of malnutrition, the main origins are inadequate dietary intake and infection. A combination of poor knowledge on appropriate feeding, poverty and the traditional monotonous food consumption practices based mainly on traditional grains, roots and tubers led to a persistent problem of malnutrition among the most vulnerable populations.

Yet the Health Minister is confident that with the efforts of the past years, and increased sensitization yet to come, the elimination of malnutrition by the end of this year is achievable. "We are to kick off a 6-month campaign," Binagwaho says, "And we believe we will see a positive outcome."


Rwanda Focus (Kigali)