Page 80 - EMBRACE Book
P. 80

Annonciata, Rwanda





                         “I joined the project because I had two small
                         children and the training was said to help improve
                         the health of children. They taught us about the
     80                  importance of a balanced diet and feeding our                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             81
                         children a good variety of vegetables. They gave us
                         some seeds, taught us new methods of organic
                         gardening, and we started growing new vegetables
                         right by our home. The results have been amazing!

                         Before ADRA came to work here we had a lot of
                         children in our village who were malnourished. The
                         thing is, we were not aware that they were
                         malnourished. We were taking our children to the
                         health clinic to do growth monitoring, but we didn’t
                         really understand the reasons why it was important.
                         We just thought that it was something that the
                         government required us to do for their record-
                         keeping.

                         When ADRA started doing their training, they
                         explained the reason behind the growth monitoring,
                         how to read the charts, and what it meant for a child
                         to be in the yellow zone or red zone. Then ADRA
                         began to teach us what we could do as parents to
                         help our children get out of the danger zones of
                         malnutrition and into the green zone.

                         Since that training, we have become much more
                         attentive to the growth and development of our
                         children. With the new foods that ADRA
                         recommended, it has been wonderful to see our
                         children gaining weight.

                         The food that I now cook for my family has greatly
                         changed. Before the ADRA training I often would                                                        Photo: © 2019 ADRA | Frank Spangler
                         cook only one item. I would cook a pot of cornmeal              meals, like carrots, spinach, and beets. The children
                         porridge or a pot of potatoes alone and feed that to            really enjoy these meals so much! So much! We are
                         my children as a meal. ADRA explained the                       all enjoying the new tastes and flavours.
                         importance of balanced diets and how we need to
                         cook a variety of foods at every meal. ADRA                     I am really grateful to the people of Canada for
                         introduced us to new fruits and vegetables, taught              bringing us all of this knowledge. We have learned
                         us how to grow them, and how to cook them. I am                 so much that has helped improve the lives of our
                         now adding a lot of vegetables and greens to our                children, as well as ourselves.”












                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Photo: © 2019 ADRA | Frank Spangler
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