Nutrition Care for People Living with HIV and AIDS in Cameroon Africa

 Lydia used the knowledge and experience gained from her training and career as an educator in the field of  Foods and Nutrition to develop a three day seminar and workshops  focused on meeting the nutritional needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS.  The workshop trainees were five IDF staff members who now will train local volunteers whose job it will be to go out into the community and help affected people to apply this information.

In sponsoring the Nutrition Seminar the Rotary Club of Truro paid expenses incurred in conducting the workshop including the printing of five 100 page training manuals. . Because many people in the villages only speak local dialect or Pidgin and some are illiterate, the manual will be further refined to bring it down to a very simple level using mostly graphics and pictorials so to make it more easily understood.

The Nutrition Workshops In Action:

The African Food Guide has three major  food groups: Energy Foods, Immunity Foods and Body Builders.   Lydia organized a set of  Food Pictorials  based on commonly available foods in Cameroon and Africa generally. The African Food Guide is a Pyramid and, as one example of a workshop activity and active learning, the trainees were asked to fit the food pictorials into the correct grouping on the pyramid.  Fortunately Lydia had saved a set of food nutrient bar graphs from her years of teaching (no longer available). As they are such excellent graphic teaching tools they are included in the nutrition manual that was developed.

Two of the days the participants prepared lunch.  A variety of healthy foods: pasta salad, corn chowder, pizzas, lemon aid made from  bottled water, soya supplement suitable for anyone who needs a nutritional, highly digestible and easy to swallow liquid based food.  One thing we discovered is participants had never used a can opener before.  People in the Cameroon  normally do not eat anything in the way of processed food.   To them it’s costly and not part of their cultural tastes.  All foods are fresh from the market or garden.

 Role playing the patient being interviewed by the community volunteer for counselling:

The wrap up focused on developing a plan of action to implement a pilot project in ‘Nutritional Counselling for HIV AIDS’ to reach the community of persons challenged by HIV AIDS.

The Plan of Action was determined as follows:

1.        Staff to deepen the Knowledge

2.       Adapt the content

3.       Train Community Volunteers to go into the homes to counsel Persons Living with HIV/AIDS

4.       Select the clients coupled with field visits

5.       Organize home visits

6.       Pilot and evaluate

Thanks to the  Rotary Club of Truro  for sponsoring the ‘Nutrition for Person Living with HIV/AIDS’ Train the Trainer Seminar in Bamenda, Cameroon November 2011.