"Zimbabwe Youth Challenge Traditional Beliefs"Using theatre, drama and focus group discussions, the Zimbabwe youth Organisation, MAYO
Zimbabwe Trust, have been changing communities’ perceptions of breastfeeding and
infant and young child nutrition.
In the three-month long project, the organisation reached more than a thousand
people with their information and education project.
The Mutoko district in the east of Zimbabwe was targeted because of the extremely poor statistics on infant and young child feeding. According to the 2010 national nutrition survey, the district has an exclusive breastfeeding rate of only 14.3%, children breastfeeding up to 24 months is 8.3% and
children getting a minimum acceptable diet is 6.6% hence the great need for an infant and young child nutrition awareness. Traditional beliefs and customs undermine optimal breastfeeding practices and are the main reason for the poor statistics. “it took skill, candidness and boldness for MAYO and to correct misconceptions set centuries ago,” said MAYO project officer. “…we faced stiff resistance
from grandmothers who relied much on their traditional ways of upbringing their children and resultantly they realized that no health suggestion can surpass doctors’ advice and mandate,” he told the IBFAN Africa Regional Office.” He further stressed that the “involvement of local stakeholders
played an important role” and increased the impact of the project. Among the positive achievements
of the project were the following:
• Myths and misconceptions(e.g. a pregnant woman cannot breastfeed) were disproved..
• The project reached in school-youths specifically targeting girls on quality reproductive health in preparation for parenthood.
• A varied diet using locally available foods was encouraged since most children are getting a monotonous diet of maize porridge three times a day.
• The community has already started accepting the initiative despite some resistance in the first place and there is uptake of the initiative by other partners.
Challenges included:
• Audiences were not as large as hoped since most people were occupied with farming as the project took place during the farming season.
• Some areas were not reached due to poor roads and inadequate transport.
• There was audience resistance to exclusive breastfeeding as they felt breast milk alone is not enough especially for big baby boys..
