Skip to main content

Cooking with ‘Patsy’ – Food & Nutrition Workshops with Mother

For international volunteers and visitors who come to Kabale, Uganda, to learn about KIHEFO’s approach to development and on the ground activities, the majority are hosted by a very special KIHEFO volunteer named Letiru Patricia, or ‘Patsy’ as some have called her with great affection.
Workshop
Patricia is originally from the Northern District of Arua, though she’s been working in Kabale with KIHEFO via Kigezi Tours for over three years. She’s the face of KIHEFO to guests who stay at the apartments in Kabale, helping to make visitors feel welcomed and comfortable in their new surroundings. Patricia works tirelessly to attend to large groups, including Kindness in Action and TO – the WORLD dental brigades who visit for two-week long marathon-like medical and dental camps. She cooks, cleans, washes, informs, cares for, and entertains both Ugandan and international volunteers with her great sense of humor. Indeed, Patsy plays a very unique role within the KIHEFO Family.
What many people don’t realize is that Patricia’s knowledge and talent for cooking has begun to expand into KIHEFO’s programs to fight poverty, disease and ignorance in the Kigezi region of southwestern Uganda.
Patricia is passionate about preparing nutritious meals using locally-sourced vegetables, fruits, grains and meats. She also has a deep, natural fondness for children, which is evident every time she visits KIHEFO’s Nutrition and Rehabilitation Centre, and playfully scoops a child up into her loving arms.
In the past three months, Patricia has volunteered her ideas and creativity to facilitate three Nutrition & Cooking Workshops with caretakers and malnourished children who are staying at the Rehabilitation Centre for extended periods of time. Part of KIHEFO’s goal is not only to attend to the immediate (often severe) health needs of malnourished children who are referred for rehabilitation, but also to provide education and resources to the caretaker who stays with the child. The hope is that mothers and caretakers will eventually leave the Centre with greater capacity to identify cheap, local food sources that are high in nutrients, and know how to prepare them for their children.
Mothers
In March, Patricia, along with a volunteer from TO – the WORLD, led a workshop with caretakers and mothers how to prepare natural peanut butter. Peanut butter contains high levels of protein and healthy oils, and due to the high rate of protein deficiency amongst children in the region, it’s an appropriate protein-boosting food source. Patricia returned from the workshop, motivated by the positive response from KIHEFO’s nursing staff, the caretakers, and mostly – the children, whom Patricia reported, “loved the peanut butter!”
When a group of six Globe Med students from Detroit visited Kabale in May, Patricia once again put her cooking and food skills to use, facilitating another workshop using locally-sourced greens. She showed mothers how to use wild and cultivated greens, including dodo (wild spinach) and pumpkin leaves, which are rich in important micro-nutrients, and prepare them with peanut butter – to appeal to children’s taste liking.
Last week, Patricia, along with a nutrition student from Regina, Saskatchewan, and a volunteer from Seattle, organized another workshop teaching mothers and caretakers about the importance of eating fruits.
“Eating fruits is like eating medicine,” Patricia explained to the mothers and caretakers.
She helped them to identify fruits that were plentiful, affordable and available in the region. Such fruits include avocados, gooseberries, and pineapple.
‘Cooking with Patsy’ has created excitement amongst KIHEFO’s nursing and health worker staff members, who help to facilitate and translate teachings into the local language of Rukiga. Patricia’s workshops provide a wonderful learning environment for mothers and caretakers, staff members, and international volunteers. The goal is to empower all those who are involved, and contribute to educating people of local foods available for combating malnutrition, especially amongst babies and children.
Patricia is a local Ugandan KIHEFO volunteer who goes above and beyond striving to make a difference in her own life and the lives of others. Learn more about Patricia and her initiatives by visiting her personal blog – Patsy’s Crafts.
To learn more about KIHEFO and how you can get involved, please visit our website – click here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Make Patsy's Organic Peanut Butter

Hello! I'm excited to post my second blog post, on how to make my organic peanut butter! From the beginning of the process to the final product, it takes a maximum of an hour and thirty minutes to make my peanut butter. However, this depends on the quantity of peanuts and ingredients I have. I've been using the same process since my childhood, when I began making peanut butter. Making peanut butter is a part of our informal education in Uganda; though it was not taught in school, it was a crucial part of my learning at home from my elders. My mother taught me how to cook starting at the age of 6 years old, including this peanut butter recipe I've detailed below! Gather the ingredients, including peanuts and simsim (sesame) seeds.  Clean the peanuts and simsim, and sort them.  Roast or fry the simsim and peanuts. In Uganda, we use charcoal stoves, however no matter what heat source you're using you need to use a medium heat to roast or fry the seeds to avoid bu
2 comments
Read more

Welcome to Patsy's Organic Peanut Butter!

Introduction Hello! My name is Patricia Letiru, I am from Northern Uganda, and am currently living in Kabale, located in Western Uganda. I work at the Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO), an NGO based in Kabale. In Uganda, you begin to cook from a young age. Cooking is an important part of your informal education in the home. As a child, I prepared peanut butter every day, and we ate it at every meal. Northern Uganda is a leading region for peanut and simsim (sesame seeds) production in the country, and is part of our traditional meals. It is produced for commercial uses and the home. In Uganda, we put peanut butter on bread, cassava, potatoes, snacks, cookies, and yellow bananas. We also use peanut butter to cook dry/smoked meat, dry/smoked fish, vegetables, and beans. Peanut butter is an important source of iron, calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, healthy fats, and carbohydrates. Ugandan peanut butter is primarily organic. Patsy's Peanut Butter In 2017, I began the
1 comment
Read more

Self-Employment

According to my understanding, self-employment is a chosen career that enables an individual to create his or her own income-generating activity, using the available resources which may either be borrowed or personally owned. I have realized that those that undertake self-employment benefit from the following: High degree of independence; as time goes on and you maintain your business well, you will start to employ people to help you. However, you still to have make the right decisions. High degree of job security in self-employment Increased innovation and creativity, as a result of the self-employed person making profits. More self-confidence; I now have more self-confidence within me and a belief in my own abilities since I work under no one’s direction, supervision and control but my own. Efficient resource utilization and good accountability since there is a personal attachment to work. The work situation is entirely under my own control. Knowledge of best practices,
Post a Comment
Read more