Why healthy childhood diets glow a country’s prospects children’s future prospects

“The first five years of a child’s life are critical to their future as the brain develops fastest within this time. For this, proper nutrition, good health, stimulation, play and early education is key.

Proper nutrition not only facilitates a child’s physical and mental development but also their health and ability to fight diseases.

Coupled with proper early childhood education, it directly impacts their future education and career, as well as socio-economic prospects. Therefore, in a wholesome manner, investment in a child’s early years is not only beneficial to an individual but to a country’s future as well.

This is the message the Waldorf Kakuma Project, an NGO sponsored by Unicef, is spreading to parents, guardians, teachers and other stakeholders involved in early childhood development and education (ECDE). Their goal is to improve children’s welfare right from the family unit, up to policy formulation at government level.

One of the parents, who is a beneficiary of regular workshops held by the organisation, is Brigit Ndanu, a resident of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Nairobi County. We join her early in the morning as she prepares her four-year-old grandchild, Ruth Nyawira, for school.

Theirs is a single rented room made of corrugated iron sheets; by all means limited space for the four people who live here – Ndanu, her cousin, daughter and granddaughter Ruth. However, these are better times, Ndanu notes, as their situation was worse a few years back.

“I came to Mukuru back in 1999, like many others, looking for a better life,” Ndanu narrates as we begin the half-kilometre walk to Maria Goretti School where Ruth studies.

“Life here is challenging, but we try our best to make ends meet, and my biggest motivation is Ruth.”

Bouncing happily besides her grandmother as she holds her hand, Ruth depicts an image of joy and innocence, oblivious to the challenges her grandmother speaks of.

She is a bright and healthy young girl who throws the occasional shy smile at us as we accompany her to school. But her life leading up to this point has not been without its fair share of hurdles, Ndanu recounts, to start with, a preterm birth.

“My daughter got pregnant immediately after completing her secondary school education, when she was still a teenager. I had a long talk with her not to abort the baby as she was scared of what would become of her life. Everything was going well but six months into the pregnancy, she developed complications. She was admitted to hospital and her baby born prematurely.”

Ndanu paints a grim picture of what they endured at the time, depending on a well-wisher to clear the hospital bill they had accrued. Then followed the taxing work of taking care of the baby at home as she was very delicate, Ndanu noting that it took six months before Ruth could take a bath. She adds even after she was out of the danger zone, she started having problems eating and was highly susceptible to diseases, requiring medical attention ever so often.

“Looking back, I now know we were short on knowledge about proper nutrition and did not pay much attention to the food we were feeding her. But we know better now,” Ndanu adds with a laugh.

She says she was focused on treatment rather than preventive measures, till Ruth joined the Catholic-run ECDE centre.

A few weeks into the school, parents were invited for a workshop to enlighten them on proper nutrition, especially in developmental years of a child, as well as training in children’s safety and other developmental factors. Ndanu notes that this was her tipping point, like many other parents who go through these workshops.

“I run a kibanda (small kiosk) where I sell fruits, mostly bananas and avocados. Sometimes Ruth would cry for an orange or a piece of watermelon, but since I do not sell either, I would just offer her a banana. If she refused to eat, I would just leave her be and take it as just being notorious, rather seeing the Sh20 I would have spent as more important invested in a different need.”

But ever since attending the training, Ndanu now understands the need for a balanced diet, especially in children. She says despite their struggles, she and her family try their best to maintain a proper diet for little Ruth, the results of which she bears witness.

“Ruth is more playful and jovial nowadays, and her immunity is becoming better,” she notes, as we approach the school gate, our insightful engagement almost drawing to a close.

She now understands the need for parents to be more engaged in their children’s welfare and protection; that’s why she or her daughter walk Ruth to school and picks her up every day, unlike earlier when they just left her to walk to school with other children, unattended.

In comes Ebby Abuta, the PP1 one teacher in charge of Ruth’s class, which has 33 children. As she enters and greets them, the ecstatic mood of the eager minors speaks for itself; they are ready to learn, sing and play, every day a new adventure for their curious minds.

Ebby notes right from the moment she enters class and based on the children’s attitude, she is able to easily monitor and identify children who might be ill, or those who had no meal the previous night or in the morning.

“Developing a bond with the children is essential as an ECDE teacher. Creating an environment of trust means the children open up to me easily when they are going through something. Some children will come to school crying in the morning because they are hungry.

Others isolate themselves or sleep in class instead of engaging with the teacher and their peers. These are some of the indicators we are able to pick of trouble at home.”

Ebby adds that when children are well fed, they are more attentive and active in classwork as well as play, which translates to better performance in class. She notes that having interactive learning where children play with learning aids such as blocks and modelling clay, coupled with proper nourishment improves a child’s grasp of knowledge.

Jescah Mulama is the head teacher of the school. She notes that the training programmes carried out by Waldorf have gone a long way in improving their children’s learning conditions. Besides teachers and parents, the organisation also trains the school board of management in ways to better support the school.

However, besides these efforts, Mulama notes that there is still an array of challenges. “Most of the parents here have no formal employment and most live from hand to mouth. Some lack basic three meals a day, leave alone a balanced diet,” echoes Mulama.

In our earlier conversation, Ndanu notes this as one of the biggest challenges; limited means of income means despite having the knowledge of what to provide for their children, they lack the needed resources some of the time. Mulama continues that some of the children totally depend on the cup of porridge and food they get at school.  Some parents can’t pay fees on time.