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Medical Anthropology: Improving Nutrition in Malawi
SONIA PATTEN
Summary In this article, anthropologist Sonia Patten describes her experience as an anthropologist on a team of researchers working to improve infant and child nutrition in rural Malawi, a small nation in Africa. She and colleagues from two American universities, under the auspices of the University Development Linkages Program, worked with faculty from a college in the University of Malawi system to develop and implement a program addressing the mortality rate for children, a rate that at the time was very nearly one in four.
Patten and her team members developed a plan to provide milk-producing goats to the women of the villages, teach them how to care for and raise the animals, and show them how to incorporate the protein- and calorie-rich milk into recipes that they could feed their malnourished children. The team met with village leaders and elders to convince them to allow women to own the goats, explain how the plan would work, and ensure them that this was a worthwhile effort to help combat the malnutrition their children faced. Once convinced, researchers identified villages that would be the best candidates for this social researchthose with an animal-theft problem were considered too problematic to include in the project.
A baseline survey of households that included children under five was conducted, while scientists from the research team crossbred goats with the necessary characteristics on a local Malawi farm. Eventually women were provided with a goat and the basic toolsa bucket, a measuring cup, and a panto get started. Local members of the research team taught the women how to incorporate the goat's milk into their children's food and made weekly visits to villages to weigh and measure the children. The children, even those who were receiving even small amounts of goat's milk, all showed steady height and weight gains, at least for a time.
The project continued to address food insecurity problems and issues that arose from the goat-raising efforts. The researchers taught the women how to plant, grow, and process soybeans into flour that they could use when no goat's milk was available. All of their efforts were sustainablewomen were asked to return their first baby goat to the researchers and 5 kg of seed after the first harvest. The research team's efforts worked within the culture of the Malawi, incorporated indigenous resources, and were conducted in the native language of the villagers.
The author concludes that the project was highly valued by rural women, as evidenced by the number who wanted to participate. It proved that the addition of goat's milk to a child's diet was valuable, and the success of the project is noted by similar projects that were introduced by Malawi nongovernmental organizations. Additionally, Patten elaborates on the importance of having an anthropologist on a research team, and identifies her role and responsibilities. Her expertise proved valuable to the acceptance of the project and the high level of participation by the Malawian villagers.
Child undernourishment in Malawi is a major problem, with a mortality rate for children under five of 24 percent, or very nearly one in four.

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