By: Emily Mikwa
A five-day workshop today commenced at the Sunset Hotel in Kisumu from November 17th to 21st, equipping local delivery agents with skills to implement the ambitious four-year Changemaker Project. The goal was to enable them to effectively implement and monitor sustainable health modules and urban farming initiatives in schools and communities.
The Changemaker Project, a four-year initiative, is titled: Promoting Co-designed sustainable health interventions with young changemakers for reduced risks of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Tanzania.
The project’s general objective is to implement and evaluate a sustainable health intervention program focused on health, nutrition, and environmental outcomes for the primary prevention of NCDs. The expected result is evidence on how to successfully implement and scale such a sustainable health intervention.
The intervention areas include:
• Urban farming initiatives in schools.
• Classroom modules for sustainable health education.
• Health counseling using motivational interviewing techniques.
• Mass media campaigns promoting healthy lifestyles.
While officially opening the workshop, Mr. Solomon Bunyela, the TSC Sub County Director for Kisumu Central, addressed the participants. He stated that they had been chosen for their positions, which allow them to be powerful agents in promoting good health and preventing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
Mr. Bunyela noted that NCDs are a current reality, with the impact felt in every household, classroom, and community, largely as a result of our lifestyles, diet, stress management, and living environment.
He stressed that the workshop was about more than rethinking approaches—it is about enabling schools to champion the health message to learners. Reiterating the common maxim, Mr. Solomon stated: “Recognize that prevention is better than cure.” He added that teachers have the power to integrate health education through science lessons, clubs, physical education, and digital learning.
Joseph Amoke gave an overview of the project, highlighting that sedentary lives and poor nutrition among adolescents are driving an increase in diseases like diabetes and cancer. He also pointed out that climate change has threatened food production in the community. Given that the majority of the population will be adolescents by 2050, the increase in lifestyle diseases among them will put significant pressure on hospitals. He noted that 70% of premature adult deaths stem from behaviors that began in adolescence. These findings were the driving force behind the Changemaker Project’s need to pilot urban farming, health, counseling, and mass media campaigns to promote a healthy lifestyle.
In Kisumu, the pilot schools were randomly selected and include Manyatta and Obinju primary schools.
Madam Susan Adhiambo, the County Director for Fisheries and Blue Economy, guided the participants through the code of conduct governing the program’s regulations and implementation. Key aspects of the code of conduct included handling data, ensuring confidentiality, maintaining strong interpersonal relations, and upholding a firm commitment to the project’s execution. This session led the participants to outline other crucial aspects to be incorporated into the code.
Erick Ogadho provided key highlights on urban school gardening. He explained that this initiative enhances learners’ social engagement and improves their interest and access to healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables. Critically, it imports knowledge and skills that allow learners to replicate the urban farming technologies in their communities, providing nutritional benefits for low-income communities.
His counterpart, Jeffrey Bonyo, presented various urban gardening technologies commonly used in urban settings. These included:
• Vertical gardens
• Multi-storey/conical gardens
• Open field gardens
• Keyhole gardens
• Raised gardens
Madam Charity and Mr. Constantine Wesonga from the TSC presented on innovative teaching methods specifically designed for delivering the sustainable health and urban farming modules to the target age group of 10 to 13 years old.
