Champ Model Evaluation Sessions

Written by Kaylynne Parkes and Christina Tucker - Nutrition Team 2010

The best part about returning to Kenya for 3 weeks this year is that we get to follow up on all of our projects. One of our major projects last year was developing tips and recommendations to give the women in the womens groups related to family nutrition. All of our recommendations were based on tweaking traditional Kenyan foods to make them more nutritious. Since we are clearly not Kenyan, and could never be experts in preparing Kenyan cuisine, we developed a model that we called “the Champs.” We had each of the two womens groups chose 6 women that were great cooks and great farmers and we dubbed them the champs. We met with the champs of each group and taught them our recommendations and had them teach us about local foods. Working together, we collaborated and developed a menu plan for the sessions. We wanted to bring samples of several different common foods that had been modified based on our recommendations for the groups members to try. We enlisted the champs to prepare these foods and we asked them to discuss with the women during the session how they prepared each dish and what challenges and/or successes they may have faced. We felt this model worked really well, kept the women engaged and provided some practical advice. In the past two weeks we have been able to meet with both the champs and the participants of each group to get some concrete feedback about how they felt about this approach. This was particularly of interest because Amy and Harrisson plan on using this same model with the nursery school parents at 5 different elementary schools in the community.
When meeting with the champs, we realized that the success of this program has continued to benefit the women’s groups and the community far beyond the family nutrition seminars themselves. The champs were delighted to have been chosen by their peers and felt proud to be part of our presentations. They felt that they gained the knowledge to not only teach members of their groups but also members of the community at large by not only learning the theory but by applying it to physical cook the dishes and use the recommendations. Although we expected positive feedback, there were comments made by the champs that we didn’t expect to hear. For example, the champs of the Ruuju Women’s Group commented that one of the best parts about being chosen as a champ was that they all got together as a group to cook the dishes and consequently became better friends. The champs of the Muchui Women’s Group said that they have gained public speaking skills after taking to the participants at the sessions and that they are now asked to cook foods for community events since they have become known as champs throughout the entire community. In both groups, group members approach the champs in particular with any nutrition related questions and to clarify aspects of our presentation if needed.
Meeting with the participants was a bit more sensitive. We were seeking feedback about the champ model and the use of their peers as experts and not feedback about the actual content of the sessions. We were afraid that we might not get honest feedback if there was any jealously or if they felt there had been favoritism shown throughout the champ model. The participants were very happy with the content of the session and are continuing to follow many of the recommendations such as soaking the maize and beans and following a balanced meal. They associate the ease at which they were able to incorporate our recommendations into their everyday cooking with the practical experience of tasting the foods prepared this way and hearing first hand how to prepare these dishes from their peers who they respected. Tasting the foods gave them the ability to compare their first attempts at following the recommendations with the proper execution of the recommendations. When asked if the participants would have chosen the same 6 champs again, both groups identified that they would, and that they are comfortable approaching the champs to ask questions. Although the participants were not considered champs, they still felt as though they had gained enough knowledge from the sessions to share what they had learned with siblings, in-laws, neighbors and other members of the community. The only criticism from the participants was that they felt as though the champs had learned more because they gained more practical experience through preparing the food for each session.
We were really happy to be able to come back to Kenya to get this feedback, not only for our own knowledge, but also because we can now share this knowledge with Amy and Harrisson. They accompanied us on these feedback sessions and gained a greater understanding of the model we used. We are hoping that they can use this feedback to take our model and turn it into a new and improved version of their own.