Food Security Ghana Project #4027

Growing Healthy Food & Healthy Children in Ghana

by Self-Help International

Growing Healthy Food & Healthy Children in Ghana

Project Report | Jan 9, 2024
GHFGHC Enhances Protein Consumption with chickens

By Bernice Agyekwena | Communications Manager

A client receives some chickens

Last year, over 700 chickens were distributed to more than 50 clients of the Growing Healthy Food Growing Healthy Children (GHFGHC) Program while plans are underway to distribute an additional 400 chickens to more clients in March this year in a bid to address the protein needs of clients by enhancing their consumption of chicken.

Chicken is a source of complete protein and thus supplies all the nine essential amino acids that the body cannot make on its own and is very nutritious. Among other things, it helps to support muscle growth as well as brain development and function.It also improves skin and joint health (https://www.health.com/chicken-benefits-7556373)

However, access to chicken and other sources of animal protein remain a real challenge for most rural communities due to the high cost of animal products as well as the challenges that people in rural communities face when trying to raise animals on their own.

The regular absence of such sources of animal protein normally results in the consumption of meals devoid of animal protein which when prolonged can lead to protein deficiency.

This situation is especially critical for pregnant and lactating mothers since a prolonged absence of protein in their diet can result in anemia and can have dire consequences for both mother and child.

The provision of these chickens by the GHFGHC Program in conjunction with the Agricultural and Entrepreneurial Development (AED) Program is in a bid to address the situation and avert protein deficiency amongst its clients by enabling them to have regular access to animal protein.

It is hoped that by giving clients easy access to acquire chickens and use them in food preparation, the nutritional quality of their meals will improve and they will also have access to adequate protein in their diets. .

A client showcases her chickens

A happy client with her chickens

Permalink

Sep 12, 2023
School Feeding At Nkontomire

By Bernice Agyekwena | Communications Manager

Nkontomire Municipal Assembly Basic Schoo

Enrollment levels at the Nkontomire Municipal Assembly Basic School in the Ashanti Region of Ghana has increased tremendously since Self Help International began a School Feeding Program for students of the school eight years ago.

Peter, the Headmaster of the school, said “there has been a 35 to 40 percent increment increase in enrollment at the school as a result of the school feeding program”

This is because some of the students are unable to take breakfast before coming to school and since they know they will take breakfast in the morning when they come to school they do not hesitate to come.

Hence, the students take the breakfast provided by SHI in the morning and take the one provided by the government later in the day because that one is supplied during lunch.

The headmaster who disclosed this during a visit by the School Feeding Program team to the school extended his gratitude to SHI for implementing the program in the school saying, “thank you very much”.

The aim of the visit by the project team was to distribute food items such as sugar and to find out whether they have enough maize to prepare food for the school term.

It was also to afford the team the opportunity to gather reports about the program for the previous term and to supply spoons, cups and utensils in addition to addressing all issues that pertain to the School Feeding Program.

The School Feeding Program which began at the Nkontomire Municipal Basic School in 2014 covers six other schools, namely, Nyame Bekyere Municipal Assembly Primary School, Bedabour District Assembly Basic School, Timeabu Municipal Assembly Basic School, Fankamawe Municipal Assembly Primary School, Bedabour Islamic Basic School and Ama Badu District Assembly Basic School.

The School Feeding Program was initiated by SHI in response to the low enrolment levels in basic schools in some rural communities in the Ashanti Region of Ghana by providing school children with high quality breakfast made from Quality Protein Maize.

Children aged from two to six years benefit from this program which covers Kindergarten one, Kindergarten two, and class one students.

Peter Agale, Headmaster of Nkontomire School

Permalink

Apr 18, 2023
From SHI Client to Lactation Coach

By Bernice Agyekwena | Communications Manager

Alice was breastfed exclusively for 6 months

Dora, a resident of Kukuboso in the Ashanti Region of Ghana joined the Growing Healthy Food Growing Healthy Children (GHFGHC) Program being run by Self-Help International (SHI) in her community when she got pregnant because she was determined to give birth to a healthy baby.

“SHI has really helped us ever since the organization came to this community. I joined GHFGHC when I was pregnant. The program supported me and other pregnant women by giving us counseling and food supplements.”

“This enhanced my nutritional status during my pregnancy and my hemoglobin (Hb) was always at the appropriate level because I adhered to all the advice given by the nutrition officers,” she says.

Under the program, Dora was introduced to the concept of exclusive breastfeeding for newborn babies for the first six months and she dutifully followed the practice when she gave birth to her daughter, Alice.

“I was used as an example to demonstrate to lactating mothers the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding whenever I attended the Child Welfare Clinic in my community, and my daughter never suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) as was the case with some babies.”

After experiencing at first hand the benefits of exclusively breastfeeding a newborn baby for the first six months, Dora was excited about the outcome and could not bear to keep this information to herself but wanted to share it with new mothers in her community to enable them to make the best choice with regards to how to take care of their newborn babies.

Ultimately, she signed up as a lactation coach with the program and has since been teaching other new mothers in the community how to effectively breastfeed their newborns.

“Now that I am a lactation coach, I will try my best to support mothers and encourage them to practice exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding after six months since children less than 2 years are in their critical stage of development and adhering to nutritional guidance goes a long way to help them.”

According to a USAID report, Ghana’s exclusive breastfeeding rate dropped from 63 percent in 2008 to 52 percent in 2014 (Breastfeeding in Ghana | U.S. Agency for International Development).

This comes with dire consequences because children who are not exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life are more prone to diarrhea and pneumonia, which are the two leading causes of childhood deaths worldwide.

“By supporting mothers to practice recommended breastfeeding practices, nearly 50 percent of under-two child deaths caused by diarrhea and pneumonia could be prevented. In Ghana, this equates to nearly 4,000 preventable deaths of children under age 2 per year” (The Cost of Not Breastfeeding in Ghana)

Dora is now a lactation coach

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 21 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.