The Prime Minister, over the weekend, launched a nationwide campaign against malnutrition, calling on Rwandans to join hands and get rid of the problem within six months. Malnutrition emerged as one of the main issues that drew public concerns during last year’s annual Umushyikirano (National Dialogue). It is encouraging that hardly a month after the Dialogue, the government had already swung into action, putting emphasis on deepening and consolidating the existing household-based initiatives such as the kitchen garden and one-cow-per-poor-family (Girinka), while, at the same time, coming up with more tailored interventions that particularly target children from disadvantaged families. It is unfortunate that there are Rwandan households that continue to grapple with malnutrition despite the various efforts aimed at improving the well being of the family. To deliver the intended results, this campaign should be run at the grassroots level, with a view to empowering the entire family unit to adequately deal with poor feeding. Many a time it’s not the lack of food, but rather lack of information about what constitutes a balanced diet. The campaign should have an element of sensitization on proper feeding. It is also important that while the country embarks on ensuring enough calories for every Rwandan, caution is taken not to encourage over-nutrition. The culture of undertaking physical exercises should be maintained to help shake off excessive calories, which can cause fatal nutrition disorders. Ends
