This month, we celebrate 186 mothers who just graduated from our Maternal Nutrition Program. Despite the challenges thrown at them by the COVID-19 pandemic, these mothers successfully completed training and walked away with lessons on everything they need to eat healthy, take care of their children before they are even born, grow their own vegetables at home, as well as maintaining proper hygiene while preparing their meals.

For many of them, the idea of eating a healthy meal was immediately linked with unaffordable costs. Instead of buying food items that would help them prepare a healthy and balanced meal, the majority of these mothers had resorted to buying whatever they could afford, regardless of the nutrients their bodies needed.

Belyse is one of the mothers that walked away with new skills after successfully concluding GHI’s three month program. She is happy that her children will grow up with knowledge of how to grow, harvest and prepare healthy food.

During the training, they were all brief on growing vegetables at home that would help feed their families. Before attending this training, most of the graduates had cited the biggest hindrance they find in preparing healthy meals for the families is that of limited sources of income. But like all the other mothers who just completed the training, Belyse now understands that preparing a healthy meal is not as expensive as she once thought. She also learnt that many of the healthy food items can be grown in her home garden so she doesn’t have to keep buying everything from the market. She is ready to implement everything she has learnt from this training. In the future, she intends to start making a living by selling some of her homegrown vegetables at the market.

The training was a huge eye-opener for them to understand that by growing their own vegetables, they not only get to improve their families’ nutrition practices but can also secure a stable source of income so they can afford the other necessities at home.

“I’m amazed I lived my life without this knowledge before participating in this training. I am certainly going to encourage other mothers who have not yet been part of this training to sign up,” Belyse adds.

The commitment and resilience of our graduates always amazes us; this cohort especially coped with a slew of obstacles caused by the pandemic. Amidst lockdowns, curfews, and social distancing rules enforced to avoid further spread of COVID-19, they continued to show up and complete each training.

By graduating from this program, each mother has become an ambassador in fighting malnutrition in their community. We can’t wait to see how they implement everything they have learnt to help improve the lives of their families and their community at large.

Story and photos by Gloria Busingye

Celebrating the Graduation of 186 Nutrition Ambassadors from our Maternal Nutrition Training