About The Project

This 4 week project is a new scheme developed by the Swansea-Gambia Link and Swansea University International Office and is part of the broader Wales for Africa Health Links Network. Ten post-graduate students from the Schools of Medicine, Human and Health Sciences and Arts and Humanities and Media Studies will travel to Gambia to carry out a research project looking at Health in the context of International development. The project aims to consider the inter-dependency between malnutrition and broader environmental and development issues. It will go towards helping the UN Millennium Development Goal paying particular attention to MDG 8 – A global Partnership for Development. The students will work together with students from Gambia University and Medical School to explore the immediate and broader factors that result in malnutrition. To do this they will utilise a case-study methodology, selecting one infant suffering from malnutrition and considering the social, cultural and environmental pathways that have led to the infant's illness.
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This is a student-led and student-maintained Blog. If you have any comments or questions, please contact Jimmy Hay at 341465@swansea.ac.uk

Saturday 14 August 2010

Tuesday 10th August

On Tuesday, the International Relations and Development students were invited by the Governmental Department of Community Development to visit an ongoing, sustainable project in Brufut. The project (funded by the Government) is aimed at local women who as part of the scheme collectively own a vegetable garden with different plots. The project has been successful in presenting a source for a sustainable diet and an additional income for families within the local area. The garden also contains a Day Care Centre for children to attend whilst their mothers work the gardens. The Centre, whilst great in its positioning and availability, is very small and pupils range up to 250 per day. There was also a communal hall for women to develop other skills such as tie-dye, sewing and crafts.



For our understanding of malnutrition, one of the most interesting aspects of visiting this community project was the fact that the women emphasised that they use and eat rather than sell most of their vegetables and only sell what is left over. As one of the major problems identified throughout this research has been the unavailability of fruits and vegetables for children this was a really positive development to see as developing effectively.

Such projects, whether funded by the government or private organisations should be supported wholeheartedly, to further health promotion with local communities.

- Lella Nouri

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1 comment:

  1. indiatuel17 August 2010 at 14:30

    excellent report, give us an idea of what should be the help about, enabling the people to self sustain their own lives.

    ReplyDelete

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