In the challenging environment of slum areas, where access to nutritious food is often limited, discussing food and nutrition becomes vital for the holistic development of children and teens. Like here in Mukuru Slums in Nairobi:

“More than 1000 families living in Mukuru Slums have been impacted since we started the initiative ca. 18 months ago,” says Kathrin working as nutritionist together with VICCO NGO, one of the partners of the Making More Health Initiative.

“Every Saturday we meet with ca 30 young mothers and youth for cooking lessons. We started with baking a cake. The week after they came back with curiosity to learn about about preparing Pilau (rice recipe). From there onwards they have come regularly every week for the cooking lessons. We have started to teach also about food hygiene. The young people share it back home with the parents and siblings and teach others.”

From Saturday nutrition to more mental health

By impacting knowledge about healthy eating habits and proper food handling practice also a lot of trust and a good surrounding was built. The young people started to talk also about daily challenges at home, in their life and they participate now very actively in general health and mental health sessions and suicide prevention talks.

“They are able to make informed choices about their diets and about the way of caring about themselves, their own wellness,” adds Shakur, the lead from VICCO.

“Together, we scale up nutrition in urban poor settings, nurturing healthier communities and promoting life-changing health behaviors. And we as an organization have also learned so much from them, about the it real needs, challenges, ideas…”

Other activity groups for young people are taking place now in addition. When you walk in the surroundings of VICCOs place you can see a lot of young people sitting outside and knitting while they talk. Or you visit or Making More Health garden area…

Last Saturday was a special one

This July nutrition Saturday with the support of Making More Health we also donated 30 thousand liters of clean water. To more than 1500 families. Good water quality is one of the most challenging issues here… we are working on more sustainable solutions.