Rwandan Families Empowered To Curb Malnutrition and Stunting

Although Rwanda has recorded improvements, stunting and malnutrition remain a challenge, especially among children and women. It is recorded at 38% among children under five, and only 18% meet the Minimum Acceptable Diet. Young mothers are hit hard, and Alphonsine Nirere has not been spared. Her ordeal dates back to childhood when Nirere did not have enough to eat, causing deficiencies in vital nutrients. Now at 34 years of age, she is a mother of two children who were born with mild signs of cognitive impairment due to poor nutrition during pregnancy. 

“Whenever I was pregnant, I would feel weak, unable to walk or do my chores. I did not know I was malnourished, and this affected my babies. It is a miracle that my firstborn is alive because I nearly lost my own life when I was pregnant,” said Nirere. 

Nirere is a resident of Nyabihu district, a district with a high stunting rate of 59% (Demographic and Health Survey 2015 Report). Her own sector of Rurembo has recorded many children and pregnant mothers who continue to lack nutritious diets. This directly adds to the rate of morbidity and mortality of mothers and infants. As a result, the community was mobilized and supported against these challenges. 

A lifeline for Nirere came in 2017 when she was enrolled into a Care Group. Care Groups are some of the activities organized by the Feed the Future Rwanda Hinga Weze activity, a USAID/Feed the Future-funded program that aims to improve the nutritional status of women and children as part of its core mission to sustainably increase smallholder farmers’ income, improve the nutritional status of Rwandan women and children, and increase the resilience of agriculture and food systems to a changing climate. 

Hinga Weze uses Care Groups and Community-Based Volunteers (CBVs) to reach families, and these groups are then encouraged to form or join clusters. Through the groups, members receive messages on behavioral change and are encouraged to adopt better nutritional practices. Members are also coached on how to provide care for children from zero to five years old and adopt non-gendered roles in the household. Together with her husband, Nirere is taking the lead to encourage her cluster called DUHASHYE BWACYI (“Let’s fight against malnutrition and stunting”) to grow home gardens of nutritious vegetables. 

“We now have home gardens with vegetables for our families. Through training, we know how to prepare nutritious meals, especially for pregnant women and children,” Nirere said. “My husband comes along too, and we have been taught to budget together. He has learned to be involved in our domestic management as well as supporting me in preparing home gardens and family meals.”  

Nirere’s family is among the 34,000 most vulnerable households supported by Hinga Weze to improve food security in 2018. Through CBVs, the households were supported to establish 2,530 home gardens and 21,510 benefited from integrated approaches, demonstrations, and trainings on nutrition and adoption of new low-cost technologies in ten the districts of Karongi, Rutsiro, Nyamasheke, Nyabihu, Ngororero, Nyamagabe, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Ngoma, and Bugesera. Thanks to these community initiatives, the future looks bright for Nirere and her family.