By Kayemba. B. Doreen, Medical Practitioner, Nutritionist, Fire Brand Climate Activist.
Malnutrition threatens to destroy a generation of children in the World. In Uganda, more than one-third of all young children-2.4million are stunted. Half of children under five and quarter of women in the reproductive age are anaemic. Although Uganda performs relatively well against other developing countries, the irreversible damage of malnutrition persists. Whether the poor or rich, they are all malnourished because the poor have no money to obtain the nutritious foods while the rich don't know what to feed their children.
As of 2016, the national prevalence of under-five over weighted was 3.7% which decreased slightly from 5.8% in 2012. The national prevalence of under-five stunting is 28.9% which is greater than the developing country average of 25%. More so, 28.5% of women of reproductive age have anaemia and 4.7% of adult women have diabetes compared to 4.4% of men , 8.6% of women and 1.8% of men have obesity . All of this is due to malnutrition. (UNICEF/WHO/World Bank group).
Between 2013-2015, it is estimated that more than 500,000 young Ugandan children died , of which half of these death were associated with under nutrition - responsible for 4 out of 10 death of children under five. The 2012 study, Cost Of Hunger estimated the health cost of children's under nutrition - related illnesses to be more than Uganda shillings 525 billion , most of which was used for treating under nutrition associated illnesses. It is also estimated that under nutrition costs Uganda 1.8trillion Uganda Shillings which, is 5.6% of it's annual Gross Domestic Product according to Unicef.
Unfortunately, most people think they lack resources to tackle malnutrition, but resources are there only that they don't know how to turn these available resources into productive ones.Solutions lie in using resources available to us, establishingVegetable Gardens in our compounds to grow vegetables like Collards, Cabbage, Spinach, Onions, Tomatoes , Egg plants, to mention, but a few.
Instead of growing flowers in compounds, urbanities can also grow vegetables which can help in greening cities. Greening cities isn’t only about planting trees. Its also about planting food and vegetables in our cities.
Do you know that planting nutritious foods in those small places(compounds) can provide you with the much needed food and vegetables from that small area thereby supplementing on your income? You can plant greens like Sukuma wiki/Collard greens, Spinach , Cabbage , Eggplants ,Tomatoes , Onions from that small area you're wasting .These greens contain lots of nutrients like vitamins A,B,C and K , minerals, fibers which are good for our health like they improve on digestion and also prevent constipation, these nutrients in greens prevent excessive blood loss since they have vitamin k . Statistics on Vegetable Production globally indicate , it's only Nigeria that is ranked 6th and Egypt 8th in the whole world yet, Egypt's water source originates from Uganda (R.Nile) . While Uganda that has many rivers and lakes is not even ranked in the first tens because Ugandans have failed to make these resources productive . Ugandans could perform more by putting their fertile soils into use by planting vegetables and food starting with those green spaces in their compounds. Grass patches can be turned into vegetable gardens for Green Pepper and cabbage which can also play a role of greening Cities and neighbourhoods.
I therefore encourage urbanities around the World, to use available land resources however small they might be , by planting Vegetables and fruits so that we further reduce or even halt malnutrition. I believe this is one of the better ways we can overcome this hazard.
About the Author:
Doreen B. Kayemba is a seasoned Nutritionist, Firebrand Climate Activist , Future Surgeon and CEO - Green Foods Foundation.