Page 81 - EMBRACE Book

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