Improving child nutrition and creating income through eggs
How can something as simple as poultry completely change a family’s life, nutritional health and level of income? This is the story of Shokofa, a young mother who had never thought of starting a business and was uncertain how she would feed her malnourished baby.
Thanks to essential funding from the Canadian Government through Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Shokofa was able to tackle these questions.
Low family income and limited food access
Eight months ago Shokofa found out that her second child, Ahmad, was suffering from malnutrition. When she went to a clinic near to her village, she learned about the medical condition that was causing her son to get weaker.
“Ahmad didn’t eat anything. He looked pale."
“Ahmad didn’t eat anything. He looked pale. Although he was two and half years old he still couldn’t crawl or stand up. The nurse weighed him in the clinic. He weighed just 5.5 Kg. They [the clinic staff] told me that I should hospitalise Ahmad in the malnutrition wing of the pediatric hospital.”
Shokofa took Ahmad to the pediatric hospital, but it was overcrowded. Because she couldn’t stay there, she ended up taking him back home without receiving any treatment.
With the family’s meagre income, Shokofa wasn’t able to buy and cook a variety of food for her children. Eating fruit was a luxury in the family. The children ate whatever the other family members ate: breakfast and snacks were usually bread and sweet tea.
“Family incomes in remote areas are extremely low."
Pedram, World Vision Afghanistan’s Livelihood Officer explains: “Family incomes in remote areas are extremely low. Consequently, their access to good food is…limited. When families don’t have any money, they are often unable to provide a wide variety of nutrients for their children.”
Improper feeding and caring practices
On the occasion that Shokofa’s family was lucky enough to buy cucumbers, eggs or meat, she wouldn’t allow her children to have any. She was taught by her mother-in-law that these kinds of foods are too heavy for a child’s stomach and lead them to get sick.
“I even drew out my breast milk for three days after delivery,” Shokofa says. “During this time, I often fed the babies sugar water and animal oil,” she recalls.
How eggs improve children’s nutrition levels
With the Canadian government’s financial support, World Vision Afghanistan has distributed high-quality hens and roosters to Shokofa and hundreds of other female-headed households to not only ensure a sustainable a small source of sustainable income but also to increase food intake and dietary diversity for children.
Pedram, the Livelihood Officer says “We trained…women on how to build poultry houses and fences. We also trained them on how to care for, monitor, and vaccinate the poultry. In addition to that, we have distributed concentrated fodder, a water trough, and an iron net to them.”
Women have also been trained throughout the duration of the project on how to cook different foods using eggs, what the health benefits of chicken meat and eggs are, as well as learning how children of different age groups should consume eggs in a beneficial way.
Shokofa’s hens give her five eggs a day. Using the knowledge she gained from the trainings, Shokofa has started to feed Ahmad one hardboiled egg daily. “In the trainings I learned how to cook different [types of food] using eggs. I also learned that eggs aren’t bad for children [but are] full of the protein that is necessary for child development.”
Eggs aren’t just a good source of food for Shokofa and her family but can also be easily sold if she needs money to buy other foods, such as vegetables, fruits and meat for her children.
Although Shokofa doesn’t know exactly how much weight Ahmad has gained since the addition of highly nutritional foods to his diet, she has observed general positive changes in Ahmad’s health.
"he has become heavier and he can easily crawl and stand up on his feet,”
“Compared to eight months ago, before I started feeding nutritional food to Ahmad, he has become heavier and he can easily crawl and stand up on his feet,” says Shokofa.
“He likes the eggs and his appetite has increased too.”
Shokofa now has a much better idea of how she should take care of her newborn, Sanam, and how the way that she feeds her children can contribute greatly to their health and well-being.
With Ahmad’s health improving every day, Shokofa has a newfound feeling of hope and the energy to go with it. She wants to expand her business and increase the number of her hens.
“I was just a housewife who had never thought of any business venture,” she says. “World Vision has woken me up. I [can now] feed my children with nutritional foods because of the eggs and income from the chickens.”
