'A Healthy Diet Is A Human Right': A Young Rwandan’s Experience With Nutrition

The first program distributed sachets called “ongera intungamubiri” to families with children under five. The sachets contain 15 vitamins and minerals and were meant to be sprinkled on food, like seasoning. As magical as the sachets were, families were not accustomed to using such seasonings and didn’t understand the sachet’s value, often throwing them away.

The second, more successful program distributed fortified porridge to pregnant women and mothers with children under five living below the poverty line. This program was quite well received as porridge is the main breakfast meal for many Rwandans – it was not something new to them. These examples demonstrate why it is imperative to listen and appreciate the context within which we are working, to avoid intervening in ways that aren’t understood or approved of by the people who need them.

It is also important to educate program participants on equitable distribution of food provided to them within the household. During the COVID-19 quarantine period, where most nutrition programs are now delivering food, including school meals, they cannot guarantee that the intended recipient is consuming the food. Many young women in households around the Global South could be left without.

Beyond undernutrition, the 2020 GNR states that countries should be equipped to fight overnutrition too, as both result from inequalities in the food systems. Before reading this GNR, I underestimated the rate of non-communicable diseases in low-income countries, so I was surprised to learn that three in four people with diabetes are in low or middle-low income countries, which is alarming. Hypertension is rising in low-income countries as well.

As a young adult, I see why these issues may be rising. As globalization increases, I see more people in Rwanda, especially young people, eating a lot of junk food. This is because they don’t have access to affordable healthy options or proper nutrition education. For young people now, it would be helpful to incorporate nutrition education into school curricula. Furthermore, governments should reduce access to ultra-processed foods and marketing of these products to youth. Prevention is always more effective than curative means. To prevent health problems and growing nutrition inequities, we have to start now with ensuring proper nutrition for our youth.

Nutritious food also needs to be made available and affordable for all. In my family growing up, we rarely consumed fruits and our vegetable intake was limited mostly to the one we grew in our backyard – “imbwija”. Though my parents were educated and understood the importance of a nutritious diet, it was often far too expensive. Even now, as an undergraduate student at Michigan State, I have a similar experience. As a nutritional science major, I understand the importance of a healthy diet, but cannot afford to eat vegetables, fruits and other fresh foods regularly because they are expensive.

Hunger doesn’t discriminate and every one of us needs a healthy diet to thrive. That should not be a privilege, it is a human right. By improving nutrition, stunting would decrease and all the money that goes into addressing stunting could be diverted to other things to benefit society. Decreases in stunting would also result in having a better educated and equipped workforce in low-income countries. If nutrition improves, the amount of money governments invest in treating non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, will be reduced and will be invested in other essential services such as education and infrastructure. All the loans the low-income countries get would be reduced or even eliminated, and countries could become self-sustainable.

In this progressive world, it is important to recognize that as much as breathing is a human right, having a healthy diet is also a human right. If we work collectively, we can make a change. I still hold out hope in my dreams. And by investing in nutrition and listening to the voices of the most marginalized, as the 2020 GNR recommends, we can ensure make the dreams of those less fortunate be realized too.