This blog post was written by Carmen Boyd, MS, RD, LD, Dietetics Program Director for Missouri State University.

Working with Convoy of Hope has been a rewarding experience for our dietetics program in so many ways!   This January, an opportunity came available for two students, Leann Robley and Aubrey Snedeker, to accompany me to Arusha, Tanzania to gather anthropometric data on children in their newly established feeding program near Mwika, Tanzania.  Arusha is in northern Tanzania in the Kilimanjaro region and is a heavily populated area with beautiful African landscapes and on the edge of the Great Rift Valley.  This opportunity was made possible in part by a CASL Faculty Fellowship research stipend awarded to me in the fall for the evaluation of nutritional status on the children in this program.  We traveled to Tanzania in late January where we were met by COH staff on the ground in Tanzania. We spent the next week traveling in the area learning about the culture and the health needs of the region.

In addition to learning about the region and the culture, we were able to work with two different tribes in the area – the Chagga and the Masaai.  The school in Mwika is primarily Chagga and we obtained baseline anthropometric measurements on approximately 150 students who are at the school, located on Mt. Kilimanjaro.  This school is run by Mama Mringa and her pastor husband and son.  It houses approximately 40 orphans full time, in addition to the other students at the school.  We were able to observe a number of clinical signs of malnutrition besides the low anthropometric measures of many of the students, which include discolored hair, skin lesions, and loss of hair.  The need of this school goes much beyond just food.  Many of the orphans are AIDS orphans and have no source of support other than the school.

We traveled to Engaruka where we gave a women’s seminar on general sanitation and nutrition to approximately 80 women.  This area is Masaai land and the women were Masaai.  It was quite an experience to visit and talk with these women in tribal dress, many who spoke English and were Lutheran!  (The Germans came to Tanzania in 1836.)  It was one of those times you realize that women are the same wherever you go.  They are concerned for the health and welfare of their families, want to help each other and have a good time doing it.  We had a great time talking with them about food, health, sanitation, babies, and many other things, learning from them as they hopefully learned from us.   They sang and danced and Aubrey and Leann both were able to participate!  We did a small food distribution of beans for the participants and spent the night in an ancient campground with Masaai guards.  It was quite an experience!

We are grateful to Convoy for the experiences they offer our students and we look forward to working with them in this project in Africa as well as others!