By Mary Mwendwa
“My wife delivered our second baby through cesarean section, she has been weak to do anything, I ensure everything she uses is clean, I cook for her , help in house chores and make sure her diet is well balanced.” Antony Alusiola, a father of two aged 32 narrates how ensures his wife is eating safe and clean food.
I met Antony together with his wife Mercy Alusiola at St.Marys Hospital in Nairobi where they were part of the team that attended a food safety forum organized by St. Marys Mission Hospital and UNIDO through a food safety program dubbed smap.
Christine Misiko , United Nations National Project Coordinator, The Standard and Market Access Programme (SMAP) confirms how they have been promoting food safety campaigns across Kenya.
“This Make Your Food Safe Campaign targets to raise awareness among consumers on ensuring food safety practices, encouraging women to reduce their family’s risk of food poisoning.That is why we have visited this hospital to be able to pass the message of having your food safe as a priority within your homes. ”
The program has been funded by European Union (12 million Euros ) where UNIDO is the implementing partner.
Food safety matters need cooperation at household level and men like Antony are setting examples of helping improve maternal welfare at household level.
“My main role of bringing my wife here was to support her, she cant make long queues and i just want to make her safe ,she had problems during her pregnancy, the baby was not rightly placed in her womb, so she was weakly and therefore my help is critical .
“You see my baby is two weeks old now and her mother is still not yet fully recovered I make sure everything she does I am part of it, i make sure the food is clean , and when breastfeeding i ensure she observes cleanliness.”
On mens’ role in supporting maternal health health, Antony says ,”As men we need to support our women because they really go through a lot during pregnancy and after , i urge all men to be very close their wives throughout their lives.
Mercy Atieno Alusiola confirms how her husband has supported her in food safety and maternal health at large, “My husband supports me very much, he cooks and does all other house chores, i just help him by advising on what to buy and he does the rest, i also make sure when breast feeding the baby i wash my breasts and everything around me is clean so that the baby is not infected.My current health situation cannot allow me to do much after the cesarean section, that is where he steps in.
Mercy Nyambura Thuo, Nutritionist , St. Marys Mission Hospital says how they usually receive cases of food poising at their facility.Food safety is about storing and preparing food to avoid food born diseases.Food preparation methods especially meat to be cooked longer to kill bacteria is very important while preparing food.Food has to be covered always to avoid contamination.Left over food has to be reboiled again.”
In our ward everyday we get a case of food poisoning, when we follow – up we find it goes back to poor food handling.This is serious especially in slums, we get cases from Mathare and Kibera, where small children and pregnant mothers are mostly affected.
we also receive cases of Lactating mothers who come with infants who have Neonatal sepsis – a type of neonatal bacterial infection which comes as a result of not cleaning breasts before breastfeeding, we encourage lactating mothers to hands before breastfeeding and encourage safe preparations of handling food generally.
