A Ghana Food Demonstration

It’s the African stereotype – malnourished children. And just like fulfilling the expat stereotype of living in luxury and partying with all the other expats in town every weekend, I am working right among the stereotype.

Childhood malnutrition in the Upper East Region is 27%, present in close to a third of all children under 5. The national average of Ghana is 13.9%, the differences between the northern regions of the countryclearly showing the disparity. Remembering our own backyard, I found an old study in the Northern Territory that indicated a 20% occurrence of malnutrition in Aboriginal children aged 0-2 years, well above the criteria for needing a nutrition intervention.

Studying malnutrition in Australia, I learnt about ‘kwashiorkor’ – malnutrition caused by a deficiency of protein. The lack of protein causes fluid shifts; odema, or puffy feet, and, as it gets worse, face and body. It is a global term, but here I have found it is a Ghanain word – from the Ga ethnic group. It means “the disease of the displaced child”, or the curse of the second child, because it occurs when a baby is weaned off (high protein) breast milk, to the local diet of maize and/or other low protein starchy staples, often due to the arrival of a second child. They quickly become malnourished, and swollen with painful fluid, because there is little protein-containing food being fed to them. As the name suggests, it was, and still is, considered a curse of the child, and this is often difficult to overcome. Often preventing recovery.

To address the low protein diets, districts have been holding food demonstrations. I attended Karaga district’s (northern region), where a group of Mother to Mother Support Group (MtMSG) participants and other community based volunteers had gathered to learn how to increase the protein content of their local recipes for the children.

Are you thinking stainless steel benchtops, ovens and stovetops for everyone, MasterChef style? We were in the health facility compound, cooking Ghana style. Over charcoal cookers, with no tables, there was much food being prepared.

The scene of the food demonstration in Karaga

Maize is the staple in the Northern Region, with some millet, sorghum and rice available, all fairly low in protein (11%). To start with, the mother’s learnt how to make koko (porridge) with added soya flour (35% protein). The ratio of 4:1 was used so it wouldn’t affect taste, and be too costly. Soya is available to some households, it is grown as a cash crop; it yields a lot of money at the markets. Which brought about a problem: These people can’t afford to keep the soya for themselves and their families. If you can get better money for soya, then you sell it and buy a larger portion of maize as it will stretch further and fill more people for longer. But it is low in protein. Soya flour was also added to banku (fermented maize/cassava), and the making of soya milk was demonstrated. If this is actually used, as some mothers described, by keeping small amounts for themselves after selling at the markets, it could improve their children’s health remarkably (and easily).

Making banku with added soya flour

Dawa-dawa is fermented locust beans. This is high in protein, and can be used as a stock flavouring as well (instead of the dreadful Maggi/Onga stuff they sell here). This was added to some soups and jollof rice.

Dawa dawa before it is ground

Moringa is a plant that is said to cure all! Sort of like Ghana’s version of wheatgrass, or goji berries. The claims of ‘more calcium than milk’ have been proven false (the calcium it contains is not available to the body), and no actual human studies have been done, yet needless to say, Ghana really needs greens, so adding moringa to the soups and stews is encouraged.

Groundnut soup with moringa added 

Alifu is another green vegetable, as well as brau that was added to traditional soups that generally has no vegetables at all. These are readily available at markets, which made me happy because it seemed like a solution that could be adapted by the villagers.

Alifu and brau cut up ready to be used - this man  was one of the only men to participate, and did well, the women loved to have a friendly dig at him. Particularly when he made sorghum banku - sorghum is pink

Tubani is steamed bean cakes. These are a healthier version of kosee  and served with a sesame seed paste that was delicious. Steaming them in plastic bags made me slightly uneasy. They made both of these with added soya flour to boost the protein.

Steaming the bean cakes

Tubani and sesame paste

Kose, with the 4 types of koko

The aim of the demonstration was for the attendees to take the training back to their groups and communities and in turn, teach these people, to ensure the new methods are taken into the home. I sincerely hope that some of these practices will continue, to help prevent the occurrence of malnutrition. There is never one cause for malnutrition, with many social and cultural factors involved that are difficult to address. It does always seem to come down to money however, and simple sounding things to us, such as giving your malnourished child an egg from your chickens rather than selling it, is not always possible. But getting the food right in the first place looks at preventing malnutrition, and hopefully bringing about small changes in the overall food supply for the benefit of everyone.

The plan for 2012 includes starting demonstration gardens, which is a fantastic integration, hopefully I will be involved in this too.