For close to a year now, JESE with support from CARE, has been implementing the Fill the Nutrition Gap (FNG) Project in Kyaka II refugee settlement in Kyegegwa district. The project was as a result of the fact that most of the development partners were paying attention to other issues and living out the component of livelihood. This left many persons of concern struggling to access food and most of the children got malnourished.

To reverse the situation, the FNG project was brought on board. This project has a number of components including Gender, nutrition, Agriculture and production and marketing among others.

Denis Mwesigwa, the project coordinator, says that before the implementation of the project, most of the families were surviving on insufficient food rations from the government and development partners.

The project is working with 1,000 households and these have been trained in different areas like moulding energy-saving cook stoves to reduce on the rampant cutting down of trees for firewood.

To start with, target beneficiaries were organised into groups and trainings in vegetable growing stated. Demonstration gardens were established in selected areas where association members would meet, learn and work together. The idea was to replicate the same knowledge in their own homes.

Zawadi Claudine is one of the beneficiaries. She says that before the project, they only used to grow maize and beans and had no idea about vegetable growing and her children had become anaemic.

“We were living in a terrible situation but when JESE and CARE came, we were taught how to grow vegetables like spinach, dodo, onions, carrots, egg plants and many others. We now see change in our homes. We eat well and our children look healthy,” Zawadi says.

Jean Hatimana is another beneficiary of the FNG project. He says that the training from CARE and JESE is transforming their lives. He notes that under their group they have established a big group garden where they harvest vegetables for home consumption and for sale.

“Going forward, our plan it to buy a motorcycle and start a salon as our alternative sources of income,” Hatimana says.

Francine Deborah is a Community Based Trainer (CBT) for Vijana Group notes that on top of vegetable growing, the project added the component of saving.

“Right now, every member of the group has a kitchen garden. We started selling some of the vegetables in July and saved some of the money. From July to November, we have sold vegetables worth 1.2 million shillings,” Deborah says.

In addition to vegetable growing, farmers were also given rabbits for sale and consumption. These have also added to the boosting of nutrition and ensuring food security among the beneficiaries.

VHT Component

Tackling the high prevalence of malnutrition needed a multi thronged approach. Having vegetables alone would not solve the issue entirely, and this is the reason why Village Health Teams were involved.

Lamonde Emmanuel is one of the many VHTs that worked on the project. He says that his efforts to fight malnutrition and anaemia were even hampered by some cultural beliefs of the mothers in the settlement.

“You would go to assess the health of the child and the mother would say you want to bewitch the child. But we would always say no: we only want to check the health condition of the baby,” Emmanuel says.

He, however, adds that the situation has since changed. Mothers were taught how to take care of their children, feed them well on energy giving and body building foods, and this has drastically reduced on the malnutrition cases in the settlement areas where the project is being implemented. “We even gave a mark tape to every household. Mothers can now take measurement of their own children. We thank JESE and CARE so much for this intervention,” he says.