Evelyn Velasquez-Moreno

Professor Khanjan Mehta

CINQ- 388 

31 January 2020 

Blog Post: Cultural Issues 

 

Cultural Issues for Malnutrition in Sierra Leone: 

One of the cultural issues that may affect the project of malnutrition in Sierra Leone is Vitamin Deficiencies in children under the age of five years old. The objective of our project Fieldwork in Sierra Leone works towards developing and introducing products that can work towards alleviating malnutrition in children under the age of five years old in Sierra Leone. The two products we will be working with include muffins and pudding that contain the necessary amount of nutrients, such as four essential micronutrients: Vitamin A, iodine, iron and zinc. In order to avoid this widespread problem in the country, we will be continuously modifying our recipe to increase shelf life and analyze our product’s environmental impact. Malnutrition in children consists of an unbalanced intake of energy and nutrients. In developing countries, like Sierra Leone, chronic malnutrition is common among children under the age of five years due to limited access of nutritious foods because of increasing costs and demand. Chronic malnutrition is dangerous because it leads to a severe condition known as acute malnutrition which increases the risk of life-threatening conditions like diabetes, iron-deficient anemia, and hypertension. Furthermore, we will work towards developing nutritious and affordable foods containing four essential micronutrients, vitamin A, iodine, iron, and zinc. 

Another cultural issue that affects my project is the food availability in Sierra Leone. For our project in Sierra Leone, our students will be developing two nutrient-dense, sweet potatoes based products, muffins for children ages two years and older, as well as a pudding for children over six months. The food availability in Sierra Leone is scarce, our project of malnutrition will be able to preserve the ingredients needed to bake these recipes, such as sodium propionate, ascorbic acid, and citric acid were evaluated. To conclude, students began the early development of a clinical study to determine the success of the muffins and pudding regarding the prevention of acute malnutrition. 

 Through clinical studies, we will work towards figuring out important information about the participants, such as whether or not the kids are growing normally, along with taking measurements of the participants. 

Situations of Cultural Issues from Experience:  

There were many cultural issues that had experienced growing up in Mexico, such as poverty, religion, education and malnutrition. There are steps to take while addressing the problems of malnutrition in Sierra Leone. These processes relate to fieldwork, clinical studies and developing recipes full on nutrition and vitamins. Poverty for example, was one of these cultural issues. Poverty in a family that is larger than four can be a social problem in developing countries. From my experiences growing up in Mexico, poverty was one of the leading factors of malnutrition, as those who were the most malnourished faced food scarcity. In addition, education, for example, was another leading factor. Those who did not have the same amount of education, especially women, had the most children. It is more challenging to support and maintain a family of many people. In terms of family status, while there are families that are fortunate enough to provide for themselves, others are not so fortunate to be able to provide for their own food, clothes, and health care. To address these problems that relate to my project of malnutrition, these are some of the steps to take while addressing the problems that are affecting malnutrition in Sierra Leone; these processes relate to fieldwork, clinical studies and the development of food recipes. Through these processes, we can work towards providing the sufficient amount of nutrition for those who face malnutrition. 

 

Cultural Practices that Can Be Leveraged to Address Community and Market Problems: 

1. Agricultural Productivity: Work as a community to teach farmers how to grow more crops in order to help and provide nutritious foods for people and children who are facing the problem of malnourishment. Through working together as a community, and being able to teach farmers in developing countries to raise crops, there can be a way to leverage the agricultural productivity and food scarcity in developing countries around the world. 
2. Communication: Since there is a limited access to nutritious foods in Sierra Leone, achieving food security means ensuring quality and continuity of food access. To address and to leverage these community and market problems, we should involve multiple sectors including agriculture, education, social protection, transport, gender, the food industry, health and other sectors, to ensure that diverse, nutritious diets are accessible and available. 
3. Support Groups for Women: Support groups for women and their children. These support groups can be set in order to educate and support mothers who are and need of the learning breastfeeding practices, in order to ensure all the nutritional needs for their infants.  

 

Evelyn Velasquez-Moreno

Professor Khanjan Mehta

Creative Inquiry 

24 January 2020 

First Blog Post: Addressing Blindness in Kenya 

I enrolled in this course because I believe Lehigh students, as well as myself, are positive leaders and role models who wish to edify their campus by sharing their interests, fostering a welcoming environment and inspiring other students to take action. I want to contribute to the world and my community by drawing on my own experiences as a Latina, a leader and a team builder. I have a passion for helping others, expanding diversity and building community, and being able to participate in a program from which I will help change the world, is the first step I need to take in order for this to happen. Furthermore, this course will make me a better student because I will be given the opportunity to develop a better mindset and skill set. I will learn foundational skills that will help me with complex problem solving, service orientation and people management, which is important for me to learn in order to prepare for the job force and for when I am working with my malnutrition group in Sierra Leone. This course will shape me into a benefactor for others through the development of my skills and mindset. In addition, not only will this course make me a better student, but it will provide me with experiences that involve leadership and teamwork, community and engagement. 

As addressed, the World Health Organization has estimated that over one billion people need glasses, however, they do not have access to them because of the lack of resources, only having at least one optometrist per one million people. This is a crisis that is impacting the lives of many people because it is limiting their inability to perform in their everyday activities. 

The solution that I have to address this problem is to work towards achieving social impact; my first step will be to develop and have real, meaningful authentic projects that can work towards helping public health issues in developing countries. How can we feel good about what we are doing? The reality is that helping to address global health problems, such as finding solutions to prevent blindness in Kenya, is a process that people have been doing all of their lives, such as volunteering in hospitals and communities.

It is important to realize this: Figuring out solutions to world health issues, such as world hunger and blindness can have its steps; but, how would it be the same to find a preventable solution to cure the risk of going blind in developing countries? We have created a cycle that keeps people dependent on things on a monthly basis for things that are often not well balanced. In this situation, we would need to provide the people of Kenya with the right health access to eye glasses.

It is important to engage the world with television commercials, build boards and other news that can alter this conflict in Kenya. However, even with all of this work that people are doing, millions and millions are people are still suffering from potential blindness. 

Another solution that I would address is to set out to use technology to propose these solutions. Get involved with optometrist’s and companies who are technologically advanced. I believe that technology and innovation have the power to solve real global issues. I would address to work and set up an app, with the motto of ‘Help More and Waste Less,’ from which we can work with brands and corporations in order to divert eye glasses into the hands that need this the most. That can be addressed as social inequality– which occurs when resources are distributed unequally around the world. Those who have enough to own eye glasses, but do not need it; on the other hand, there are those who need eye glasses, but do not have enough to own a pair because of their social class. 

Blindness in developing countries is not being solved, the truth is that it is really just being worked on. There are hundreds of social entrepreneurs around the world, but they will never get to think enough to solve this problem. By addressing the problem of blindness, we can solve other problems. We need to introduce new policies, and change mind and actions; the reality is that this does not solve blindness in Kenya– we can do far more than giving a family eye-glasses. Perhaps we can increase the productivity of organization and technology. In the end, however, it is important to realize this: We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.