A Family’s Way of Using a 3-months’Training to Fight Malnutrition in their Community
Vestine never really used to prepare vegetables often for her family. She would only do that once in a blue moon when her neighbors would let her harvest from their garden which limited her to enjoying the taste of only one vegetable that they liked to grow. But all this changed the moment she engaged in our agriculture, nutrition and health training for expecting mothers.
A happy mother is one with a healthy looking vegetable garden (Pictured: Vestine Mutegarugori harvesting Spinach from her home garden
“I never used to prepare vegetables that often at home. Once in a while, I could prepare Amaranth that I would get from my neighbors. But I now realize it was just ignorance because I had land to grow my own just like them.”
Vestine’s lucky day came when she was visited by a community health worker who shared news about the training for expecting mothers by Gardens For Health International (GHI).
There are many things Vestine didn’t know until she participated in the training. For instance it was during this training that she got to learn about the different types of vegetable gardens including her new favorite ones; mandala beds.
Vestine is mostly proud that the experience she got is not a one-time opportunity but will last a lifetime. She proudly shares her confidence that since she attended the training, she can now teach other mothers who need to learn how to sustain their families through thriving gardens.
The 3-month training program offered to mothers is Gardens For Health International (GHI)’s perfect mix of health, nutrition and agriculture experience passed on to other mothers and fathers who need to keep their families well equipped to defeat the battle against malnutrition. Our field experts have been doing a tremendous job in empowering families with skills to grow, harvest and prepare nutritious food for their families.
Since our interactions with these families don’t stop at the training, it’s during our home-visit follow up programme that we get to witness the impact of our program on these families. For instance, when we visited Vestine Mutegarugori, mother of 6 in Gasabo District, her vegetable garden was all we needed to feel content that our program is serving its purpose.
Like all the other attendees of our Maternal Nutrition Program, Vestine and her husband, Theoneste learned how to prepare a productive vegetable garden through the theoretical and practical lessons she learnt on bed building sessions. Her favorite one was the Mandala garden because to her, it was unique and exciting. When Vestine started practicing what she learnt, she started off with a Mandela garden of Amaranth.
Vestine with her husband, Theoneste in their home garden
Though Vestine enjoys the experience of growing her own vegetables though, her overall experience of the 3-months journey highlights the health trainings as her favorite.
“Most times when any of my children would fall sick, I would quickly run to a neighbor and ask for medicine to give them. I could not even identify which type of medicine they gave me, there are times when they gave us HIV meds and we could use it without knowing.”
This was Vestine’s biggest lesson. In addition to using medicine that she had no idea about, Vestine would sometimes use any random herbs her friends could suggest to her. But she now knows better. During the training, all mothers are encouraged to seek medical advice from health centers instead of self medicating.
Vestine is happy with the way GHI offers training. Everything is well demonstrated to mothers in their local context to the extent that she and her family find it so easy to try out at home and share with other mothers in the neighborhood. However, she and her husband are sad that majority of their neighbors didn’t show interest in starting to grow their own vegetables.
Come Blaise, our field educator shares the same concern.
Vestine, her husband Theoneste, with their neighbor Olive showing off the beautiful vegetable garden to GHI Field Educator, Come Blaise
“I will be very happy if I start seeing more of your neighbors with healthy looking vegetable gardens at their homes. If any of them asks for vegetables to cook, give them but also keep encouraging them to plant their own gardens.” - Come Blaise, GHI Field Educator. ”
Just like Come Blaise advised Vestine now confidently teaches other mothers how to prepare gardens. For instance, she has been happily passing along all her experience and notes from the training to Olive, one of her immediate neighbors who only started growing vegetables after recieving seeds from Vestine. On the other hand, her husband also makes time to teach other families to build the Mandala garden, their favorite.
When mothers and fathers learn to grow vegetables at home and prepare healthy meals using our signature One Pot One Hour technique, they are not only providing regular meals to their families but also contributing to our initiative to fight against malnutrition. Parents like Vestine and Theoneste are our ambassadors in the community and we are proud of seeing their families live healthier lives.