Kenyan families in urban informal settlements and rural areas are experiencing poor health, including rising rates of noncommunicable disease, malnutrition, and violence.
Malnutrition is rampant in our communities leading to stunted development in children, decreased immune systems, and an increased spread of infectious diseases. One in three children from our communities have experienced violence.
For HIV positive populations, challenges in health care increases their vulnerabilities. Many of those who are infected tend to suffer from opportunistic infections and are less likely to adhere to ART therapies. In recent years, there has been a 15% increase in AIDS-related deaths.
TICAH has been working in informal settlements of Nairobi for over 20 years with our flagship “Food as Medicine” approach. Our approach uses practical knowledge of indigenous foods and natural remedies to combat noncommunicable diseases, malnutrition and HIV-related infections. Our network of community health workers (“Miales”) share this knowledge, allowing low-income communities to strengthen their immunity and take charge of their own health. We also partner with 50 schools and 30 Early Childhood Development Centres, promoting healthy meals and behaviors.
Many of our communities have the perception that to eat healthy is expensive. We challenge this notion by providing information on healthy, low cost diets, meal planning, budgeting, common illness identification, and natural ways to prevent and treat illnesses with food and herbs. Our work on nutrition and herbs takes a holistic approach and considers all aspects of what we are putting into our bodies, including stress and medication.
As we engaged with families on child malnutrition, our communities shared challenges with caregiving practices and violence against children, leading us to expand this program to include child development, child protection and safeguarding program, collaborating closely with Our Bodies, Our Choices program.
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Enhancing the agency of people living with HIV (PLHIV) to use food medicines for prevention of opportunistic infections, management of drug side effects and immune boosting. We strengthen community health systems by training community champions known as Miales to serve as nutrition and health champions in their communities where they run support groups for PLHIV, train other community members and engage with decision makers.
We work closely with government partners to build capacity of health care providers for quality and comprehensive delivery of HIV and Nutrition services. We also influence policy for integrated and holistic HIV/nutrition service delivery, and child protection.
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Supporting a movement to shift narratives and promote indigenous and traditional foods and food systems in Kenya.
Partnering with Early Childhood Development Centres by providing knowledge on nutrition and child development to teachers, parents and caregivers. We also support ECD centres to grow and eat indigenous foods of high nutritional value, equipping them with knowledge on sustainable farming and provide inputs for them to start school gardens.
Supporting primary and secondary students with the TICAH Calendar to discuss values, history, rights, art and culture
Creating safe spaces for children to learn about rights and values through dialogues and use of art. Strengthening multi-stakeholder collaboration in child abuse prevention and response.
Encouragement and connections to support self-driven community action for social justice
With your support, TICAH will continue to provide low-income families with knowledge on nutrition, common illnesses, herbs for preventing and treating illnesses and living positively.
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