Harvard College Global Hunger Initiative: Creating solutions to alleviate malnutrition within the Rukungiri District of Uganda

Issues: Childhood malnutrition affects 25% of the world's children and contributes to the deaths of 6.6 million children under the age of 5 annually. In Rukungiri District, Uganda, 30-40% of children suffer from acute or chronic malnutrition. Despite the need for intervention, the crisis within this district remains largely unaddressed. Description: The Global Hunger Initiative (GHI) addresses the underlying causes of the global food crisis by developing new models that can alleviate the recent food shortage, advance education, improve health, increase economic opportunity, and tackle the root causes of global poverty. GHI partners with Nyakibale Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, to form the Initiative to End Child Malnutrition (IECM) in Rukungiri District. (A full description of IECM was presented at the 2010 APHA Meeting). GHI is a student-run initiative, and supports IECM activities. Lessons Learned: During Summer 2010 and Winter 2011, twelve GHI students completed the following activities in Uganda: (1) developed a school garden initiative; (2) trained 9 community health center staff on child malnutrition topics; and (3) conducted malnutrition education trainings for 80 local Ugandan nursing students. GHI also helped develop the malnutrition education teaching materials for these trainings. Recommendations: In Summer 2011, we intend to train 20 Rukungiri community health centers in the IECM malnutrition protocol, begin quantifying the incidence of child malnutrition in Rukungiri, and implement 5 new educational school gardens and curriculums. By continuing to strengthen the capacity of the community to diagnose and treat malnutrition, GHI will build healthier minds and bodies within Uganda.