Bahoneza – Kinyarwanda, Rwanda Welfare, Social Welfare, Rwanda People, Nutrition and Diet, Rwanda Habitat, Living in Kigali

Six (6) months old child is supposed to have other foods to supplement breast milk and keep breast feeding up until 2 years of age and this is of much importance to health of a child, leading it to good growth and development.

Baby foods and breast milk makes a child have all body nutrients to grow well an d for a good strategy, a parent must think of what kind of foods that are good for the baby, how many times they are given in a day, how the baby is fed, how much the baby consumed, the baby’s courage to be fed and most importantly, the hygiene and overall sanitation.

Baby food should have all dietary nutrients like body building food which includes beans, peas, ground nuts, soya, milk, fish, eggs, meat, and many others. There should also be food that gives strength to the child like rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, yams, and many others. A child also should be given vegetables and fruits of all kinds.

As the ministry of health states, every child since birth to 5 years of age should be followed closely by measuring monthly weight and be followed by an experienced doctor to see if the child is growing well and a parent should seek for medical advice if the baby weight is not increasing.

Imbuto Foundation a warded Evelyne Nyiramaromba from Burera district as the best guardian angel termed as ‘Malayika Murinzi’ for raising two children who are not hers.

Evelyne Nyiramaromba picked and raised a boy who is now 7 year old and a girl who is also 13 years of age. She says to have picked the baby girl in the year of 2000 on the road that connects Ruhengeri to Kigali city.

She continues to explain that she picked the child from her mother who had died on the road side and immediately took the child to the hospital of CHUK in Kigali for check up.

The doctors found when the child was normal and only urged her to take good care of the child since her mother had died.

“ The doctors tested the child and found she was in good condition but only urged me to take good care of her since she had lost the mother to breast feed her”, Evelyne Nyiramaromba narrated.

She tried her level best to raise child whom she named Latifah Akimana until now when she is in primary three.

She picked the boy child when he was at 3 years of age and they have so far spent 4 year living together and she put him in school whereby he is now in primary one.

Imbuto Foundation rewarded Evelyne Nyiramaromba for her kind heart of raising children  for the nation with a cow, medal and a certificate.

Former inhabitants of the grass thatched huts locally known as nyakatsi in Gishubi Sector of Gisagara district in the Southern Province have commended the government of Rwanda for the anti- nyakatsi drive which saw them posses iron sheltered houses.

These residents say that they have achieved a lot especially living well, something they could have never achieved in the grass thatched huts

“I was born to parents living in nyakatsi, I grew up there; I was married to a husband living in Nyakatsi; but now I have a decent home with iron sheets and I sleep well without for rain and cold nights I used to endure,” said Cecile Muhayimana.

Venantie Mukamusoni, aged 72 reiterated that she expects her age expectancy to increase due to the new life she is living.

“I grew up a bad lifestyle, during rainy seasons we would be as if sleeping in the open. But now am feeling better and at my age I expect to live longer in this house,” said Mukamusoni.

Gishubi Sector was among the top sectors in the district with grass thatched houses amounting to 1, 500. Now,  more than 85 families live in village estates known as “imidugudu” in decent houses.

Grass-thatched houses or Nyakatsi have been used in Rwanda since time immemorial. Even with the arrival of modern building methods, poverty and lack of political will by former regimes meant many people still continued to live in these traditional houses.

In 2008, the Government of Rwanda embarked on a campaign to improve housing, which included the eradication of Nyakatsi. It was the government’s target to put an end to grass thatched houses so that rural Rwandans would have decent shelters equipped with modern and healthy infrastructure across the country.

Le programme de lutte contre la kwashiorkor et autres maladies liées à la mauvaise alimentation se poursuit dans le district de Nyabihu. Après avoir débuté dans le secteur de Rurembo, ce programme continue dans les autres secteurs de ce district concernés par ce problème. Les activités à l’ordre du jour sont entre autres la distribution du lait aux enfants sous alimentés.

Prendre en charge les enfants en bas âge en les protégeant des maladies liées à la sous alimentation est primordial.

Cela leur permet de grandir en bonne santé comme l’ont souligné les autorités en charge de la santé dans ce district. Ce genre de programme se déroule dans le pays dans le cadre de lutter contre la sous alimentation surtout chez les enfants en bas âge.