Shule ya chekechea ya Lake Victoria Childrens Society walipata Award

In Ukerewe the event was held in Bulamba Village, and Government Personnel and Dignitaries were invited. LVC introduced the event which is specifically held to mobilise and create awareness across communities about the importance of food and good nutrition, especially for children and expecting mothers.

All the children from the LVC Centre were taken, to be involved in this event. Furthermore, all of the LVC Ambassadors from across the island came to join in too. Here the LVC children are sitting so patiently waiting for the proceedings to start.

The commemoration kicked off at 2.30 p.m. in a spectacular fashion with a thirty minute demonstration from a Health Centre in Bulamba village, and then on to a football pitch where the event was to take place. Participants were holding up banners carrying the message for the event. Dunga Ngoma Group, the most popular one in Ukerewe entertained with their music and dance, and played a vital roll in attracting the maximum crowd for the event. Unbelieveably the crowd grew from about 100 to over 700 in the space of three hours. Here Alex is giving out leaflets to the crowd.

The guest of honour, Mr. Toto Mkama the Ward chancellor in the area said the time has come for people in Ukerewe to learn and understand about nutrition and its relevance to a healthy life, saying many children on the Island die not from witchcraft which is what many parents believe but lack of adequate nutrition and this makes children vulnerable to diseases such as frequent malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition.

Four extremely qualified individuals in nutrition stood up one by one and described the importance of good nutrition to life. They explained how lack of nutrition at a tender age can permanently affect growth and mental ability and therefore ruin the potential of a child in later life. "Without proper nutrition at early years of child development, is like a plant without fertilizer - it will never produce adequately", the crowd were told.

The need for growing and eating diversified nutritious foods was explained and residents on the island were urged to cultivate orange fleshed sweet potatoes. The integration of Nutrition Services in all routine and outreach health services and programmes were needed. Nutrition for sick children; pregnant women; lactating mothers and other women of reproductive age is vital and breast feeding is critically important for the growth of a healthy child, the crowd were informed.

Families in Ukerewe need to live in a healthy environment with good access to toilets and other sanitation services. Boiling drinking water was important and the government at local level needs to improve, and put in place effective health facilities and services, including nutrition services, such as micronutrient supplementation and nutrition education, the official said.

The audience asked questions and it was obvious that a large proportion did not understand about nutrition. They now know that children with swollen bellies were malnourished and not bewitched as their parents had believed.

The Ambassadors from LVC went back to their own villages and passed on to the local population the information gained about nutrition.

Alex Magaga then travelled to Dar es Salaam to participate in the National Commemoration organised by PANITA - but not before the LVC children had been given a very nutritious meal back at the LVC centre, to celebrate!

Our thanks to Alex for sharing this special event with us - and our Congratulations to him for organizing such a successful event in the community.

Best wishes,

Milan Tomic

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