Bonnie recently visited us in Malawi on what was her fourth trip to Ripple Africa. A qualified nutritionist, she supported our Disabilities and Rehabilitation project by running feeding courses with Loveness for parents of children with cerebral palsy.
Bonnie said, “To start we focussed on practicing good nutrition using the Malawi food guide and the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Other topics discussed included when to add complementary foods, what consistency they should be and how to fortify them with other foods for example adding ground nuts, soy flour, mashed bananas etc.”
During the sessions they made various dishes including fortified porridge and a mashed sweet potato fortified with mashed beans. Everybody had a chance to taste the food first before learning feeding techniques.
Bonnie continued, “We talked about the importance of fortifying the foods for children with cerebral palsy to get the most nutritious food in every mouthful, to make sure that the consistency was right and to make sure that the child was in the right position for proper swallowing.”
In addition, the sessions also touched on what are healthy and unhealthy snacks for any child and Bonnie showed the mothers how to make peanut butter on bread with bananas. Many of the mothers said that they would be able to manage to make this at home.
Bonnie said, “Loveness does an awesome job with these mums and their children. I left her my training binder and I’m confident she will be following up to see how they are getting on with the recipes at home.”
Thank you Bonnie for supporting Loveness, and the clients and their families.
