Tanzania Tanzania Blood samples provide information on the nutritional status of the village population and thus on whether the project is really achieving the desired results. However, many people in Tanzania’s rural regions are unaware of blood sampling and are often skeptical about it. Information campaigns to promote acceptance and understanding are therefore all the more important. GARDENS AND EDUCATION The green plant bags were a first, visible success. But the researchers knew that the bags alone would not be able to sustainably improve the population’s diet. They worked together with the local communities to initiate further innovations at many levels: Compost systems, school gardens, an app for more transparent market or large rainwater cisterns to collect precious water during the rainy season. At the heart of the project, however, are newly built nutrition centers in the villages. In the “Nutrition Upscaling Center” people learn how to eat more healthy and sell home-grown vegetables or seeds for the kitchen garden. Farmers learn how to refine their products and thereby achieve higher prices. Nutrition becomes the topic of discussion in the village – and that for the long term. In the meantime, the residents of the neighboring villages visit the center to find out about healthy nutrition as well as the cultivation, marketing and profitable sale of vegetables. After two years, new studies indicated that the first successes are taking shape. In Morogoro, where people were very overweight and yet still malnourished, the blood test results of mothers and children have improved significantly. “Anemia has almost halved”, Constance Rybak says happily. Recently she visited Tanzania again and was pleased to see that people are continuing to cultivate the bag gardens. Ryback was also delighted about the fact that healthy nutrition has become an issue in everyday village life. The knowledge with which the village population creates new value chains is concentrated above all in the nutrition centers. The researchers are convinced that the facilities could also be trendsetting for other regions. Together with policymakers, business and local communities they are currently working on new concepts to establish these institutions as centers of innovation. THE TEAM Project coordinator Dr. Constance Rybak works together with group leader Dr. Stefan Sieber in the working group “Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries” at ZALF. To the »Scale-N« video 08 09
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