Home Sweet Home Away From Home

After spending such an amazing summer in Kenya last year, we never thought we’d be back, especially not so soon. Although it’s only a comparatively short three-week visit, we could be happier that we were given an opportunity to return to Kiirua. We’re honored to have been asked to come back as mentors for the new nutrition students and are thrilled to be able to evaluate our projects from last year and receive feedback first hand from the participants of our nutrition seminars and school lunch research. Even though it’s been 8 months since we last set foot on Kenyan soil, after only a few days we felt at home and like part of the community.

Last summer, one of our main projects was to assess the school feed

ing programs of 5 schools and to work with the staff at each school to improve the nutritional quality of the meals being served. This year, we were able to visit each of the schools to talk with the staff to determine what changes have been made based on our recommendations. Each of the schools has begun to soak their maize and beans overnight and they are all adding more vegetables to their githeri now than they were before. We were worried about doing these follow-up sessions with the schools because we were concerned that the draught would have prevented the schools from being able to implement any changes. Despite the failing crops in the school gardens and within the community, each school is taking the initiative to make school nutrition a priority. Each school has it’s own barriers and challenges, but they are all doing everything they can with what they have. It was really neat to learn that the reports we developed for each school have been passed on to all staff at each school and have been shared with new staff as well. Some of our handouts were even still hanging on the walls as a constant reminder of our nutrition messages.

Going into the feedback sessions, we had no idea what to expect, and were almost

expecting to hear the worst given the draught. Our first feedback session was at Ruuju Primary School, and we were blown away by how hard the school has been working to achieve the goals we set with them last year. Not only have they achieved the goals they set with us, they went above and beyond and have made even more changes than we had originally discussed with them. They took the initiative to read our recommendations and set and achieved even more goals once they accomplished the goals set while we were in Kenya. They emphasized the impact the improved school-feeding program has had on the children, especially during the draught when food is less secure at home. Academic performance has improved, and the school has even won the prize of being the top academic school in their district for the first time ever. The headmaster has even noticed a significant decrease in the number of students who are ill.

When working with the schools last summer, we were proud of the work we had done and were hopeful that it would initiate change, but we were unable to actually do any follow up to determine if the goals were being accomplished or if changes were being made. Being back in Kenya and being able to do the follow-up sessions ourselves has been incredible. While sitting in the headmaster’s office, learning about all the improvements that have been made, our faces hurt from smiling so huge. We felt like kids in a candy store, and got more and more excited every time we learned of a new change that has been made related to the school lunch program. We used Ruuju as an example because it was the first school we assessed, but each school we visited had it’s own share of success stories, every one of which made us proud.

As awesome as it was to get to conduct the feedback sessions our selves and to be back in Kenya, our job here is as mentors to the new nutrition students from UPEI. Through the feedback sessions, we were able to introduce the new students to many of the key contacts we made last year at the schools and we were able to teach them all of our school and family nutrition recommendations and tips. We made many good friends last year, and at Kamuketha we were even greeted as fellow staff members. We wanted to facilitate that kind of working relationship between the community and the new students. Last summer, we had to learn how to communicate with people who had a different first language then ourselves by trial and error any by experiencing several miscommunications. This year, we were able to model effective communication skills for the new students. The new students, Amy and Harrison, have been awesome. They are learning quickly and are already filling our shoes as the nutrition team from Canada. We’re excited about the new projects and will be contacting them on a regular basis for detailed updates.