GEDA trains teenage mothers on demo setup for the nutrient dense foods

In the bid to improve the nutrition status of the Children born to teenage mothers under the “better nutrition for children under five” project, GEDA Uganda has continuously empowered the project beneficiaries with several skills, demonstration set for nutrient dense foods being the latest.

A total number of 31 Care givers (Teenage mothers) participated in the training. The training aimed to demonstrate the relevance of having gardens for growing nutrient-dense crops, improving nutrition, and enhancing the health and well-being of young mothers and their children.

The training based on;

• Demonstrating the importance of nutrition gardens for growing nutrient-dense crops.
• Equipping teenage mothers with skills and knowledge on establishing and managing nutrition gardens.
• And promoting the consumption of nutrient-dense crops for improved nutrition and health.

A number of topics were covered during this training including but not limited to;

1. Importance of Nutrition Gardens: Participants learned about the benefits of having nutrition gardens, including improved nutrition, increased food security, and enhanced health and well-being.
2. Selecting Nutrient-Dense Crops: Participants were taught how to select crops that are rich in essential nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and proteins.

• Establishing and Managing Nutrition Gardens: Participants learned how to establish and manage nutrition gardens, including preparing the soil, planting, and maintaining the crops.
• Nursery bed; the following were discussed; -soil preparation, soil sterilization, manuring, sawing, mulching, watering, shade provision, weeding, pest control, hardening off, and transplanting.

The GEDA trainer also went ahead and explained the different common gardens to be used in the demonstration site and these included the African Key hole garden for one stop different vegetable harvesting, U-garden for soil and water conservation and flat beds.

He further requested the teenage mothers to go and identify the right fields so that they can sample these gardens at the time of transplanting.

At the end of the training the teenage mothers had gained;

1. Enhanced knowledge and skills  when they had elaborated theoretical session and demonstrated practically on the nutrient dense foods’ demonstration gardens.

2. Enhanced knowledge and Skills on selecting the appropriate planting materials and the information attached to ensure seed viability, germinability, manufacturing & expiry dates were key.

3. Enhanced Motivation: Participants expressed increased motivation to establish and maintain nutrition gardens, promoting improved nutrition and health for themselves and their children.

GEDA Uganda is committed to impart the skills and change the status of the Children born to teenage mothers.