REPORT ON MISUNGWI MALNUTRITION AND GEOPHAGIA OUTREACH

On 12th February 2013,the Global Health Club reached out to the villagers in Iteja a small village in the district of Misungwi in Mwanza region. The main aim of our project was to reach out and educate the villages on topics of Malnutrition and Geophagia. On that day a total of 15 students out of the 30 previously trained students turned out to participate in the event. We left CUHAS campus at 10.00am by the CUHAS bus. There were 98 women and 25 men among the villagers who attended the event. It was quite difficult to count the children at the beginning because they were playing around the area.

The event itself was divided into two sessions. The first was the Education part and the second was the analysis part. The villagers were seated in a small warehouse ready to receive the appropriate services.

Firstly, the Education section consisted of four powerpoint presentations, each 20 minutes length. The headings of the presentations were “Breastfeeding”, ”Balanced diet”, ”Geophagia and Pica” and “Obesity”. These presentations were highly illustrative and were given in Swahili language. However, there were instances when explanation was made in the traditional Sukuma language for more clarification. We had some energizers which the medical students performed in public after every two

presentations to keep the audience alert and attentive. Brochures were printed in Swahili and were given to the villagers so that they could remember and spread the knowledge that they had just obtained. The crowd was attentive and kept asking a lot of questions during each session hence the objective of making them understand the important concepts in Nutrition and Geophagia were fairly attained at hand.

Secondly, The Analysis section consisted of individual interviews and questionnaires that were filled out by the medical students after translating the questions into Swahili for the villagers to understand. This session consisted of analysis of the womens’ and children’s current nutritional status and their geophagia habits in pregnancy. Anthropometric measurements such as BMI and Mid-Upper-Arm-Circumference were taken. The interviews were done in the open under the shed of the several beautiful trees outside the warehouse. The women also obtained their regular clinic services from the Misungwi staff that came with us to the area. At the end 95 questionnaires were filled out of 100.

Some of the shortcomings of this event was that there was excess food since half of the expected students didn’t turn up. We then distributed the remaining food to the villagers who were still around the area towards the end of the event which was around 4.30pm.As we were waiting for the bus to come pick us up again we played several games among ourselves and with the village children close by till sunset. Here is a picture of the sunset that evening..

We came back to university late in the evening at 7.00pm happy about the fact that we made a little difference.

Thanks to all those that helped us in preparing for this event.Special thanks to DR Robert Peck (internal Medicine Department),Mr Elias(Community Medicine Department),The Misungwi District Hospital Staff,The Baylor Pediatrics Unit and the students who made this even a success.Thank you all once again.We hope we will be together in further community health service projects like these again.