Mozambique: How a Niassa teacher declared war on malnutrition

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Mozambique: How a Niassa teacher declared war on malnutrition

1:33 CAT | 31 Aug 2018

Photo: DW

Observing levels of chronic malnutrition in the region, Mozambican teacher Belito Manuel decided to create a special flour, with more nutrients than ordinary flour. Now authorities want to disseminate the idea throughout Niassa.

In Mozambique’s northern Niassa province, chronic malnutrition affects 44% of the population, children under five most of all. For Armando Manhoca, from the Provincial Directorate of Health of Niassa, this is a problem that can only be solved when everyone is engaged.

“We have called on community leaders, who are the people communities listen to, to support this plan and urge the community to adopt these practices,” Manhoca says.

Teacher Belito Manuel explains that one of the problems is that people have food in the province but do not know how to combine different foods.

Teacher prepares fortified flour

Manuel is a teacher at the Cuamba Secondary School and has a background in the chemistry of natural products.

“I carried out a basic study to determine the reasons for the high rate of chronic malnutrition in the district of Cuamba, which produces a variety of food crops, and concluded that the socio-cultural behaviour of the population is the main reason for the phenomenon that causes deaths in communities,” he says.

Responding to the authorities’ appeal, Manuel produced a fortified flour made of locally produced products including soy, sesame, kidney beans, moringa leaf, pumpkin seeds and eggshells, all products rich in folic acid and vitamins.

The authorities now want to spread the idea across the province, Armando Manhoca, the man responsible for chronic malnutrition at the Niassa Provincial Directorate of Health, says.

“The initiative is commendable. Here we have a teacher who is engaged in a programme to fight malnutrition in Niassa, and we would like to take it further and teach more people how to make his enriched porridge,” Manhoca says.

With initiatives like this, the Niassa government hopes to cut chronic malnutrition to 16% by 2019.

Source: Deutsche Welle