Afghanistan
The USDA will help more than 405,000 people in Afghanistan through a cooperative agreement with WISHH, NEI, Shelter for Life International and CBI Global.
WISHH and three partnering organizations are the recipients of a new three-year USDA Food for Progress cooperative agreement for work in Afghanistan. The agreement, with an estimated value of $26 million, will bring the strengths of soy protein to fight some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, as well as help rebuild Afghanistan's food industry.
Joining WISHH in this project are: Shelter for Life International, which is headquartered in Minnesota; California-based Nutrition and Education International Inc. (NEI), and CBI Global located in Ohio.
Soy milk and other soyfoods are effective in helping meet the protein and other nutritional needs of children and adults in Afghan refugee centers.
The USDA cooperative agreement will provide 240 metric tons of defatted soy flour over the next three years to meet immediate nutritional needs of 5,000 women and their families. The agreement also includes 13,750 metric tons of soybean oil that will be monetized or sold into the local market in support of the project activities. The project will also bolster the processing end of the agricultural value chain, with the shipment of 6,000 metric tons of soybeans over three years. Afghan soybean processing facilities will use the soybeans to produce soy flour and soybean oil for the local market. Over the life of the program and all of its activities, this project will support more than 220,000 direct beneficiaries.
Afghanistan has some of the worst health statistics in the world. According to UNICEF, more than half of all children under five suffer from moderate or severe stunting. Twenty five percent of children die before reaching their fifth birthday. The health of rural Afghan people, particularly women and children, is often the worst in the nation.
Nutrition scientist and NEI founder Dr. Steven Kwon (center) has successfully added 10 percent soy flour to naan, a traditional Afghan bread, and increased the absorbable protein by 110 percent.
NEI founder and nutrition scientist Dr. Steven Kwon survived the post-war devastation in Korea in the 1950s before moving to the United States. Those experiences prompted him to go to Afghanistan in 2003 to see if he could help. Dr. Kwon identified that soy could play an important role in meeting the dire need for protein.
With the support of local Afghan leaders, NEI has distributed soy flour to pregnant and lactating women and conducted nutrition education and soy cooking seminars. NEI has also worked with small bakeries to encourage them to use 10 percent soy flour in the production of naan (a traditional flatbread) for elementary schools and refugee camps.
Adding 10 percent soy flour increases the absorbable protein of the naan by 110 percent, says Dr. Kwon, who has witnessed the impact of soy in his 28 trips to Afghanistan. "After one month, the children’s faces go from looking sick to normal," Kwon says "In three months, we see healthy and happy looking children—all because of soy."
Dr. Kwon is enthusiastic about the expansion of these results by working with WISHH under the new USDA Food for Progress cooperative agreement. "WISHH has the technical expertise to strengthen the (food) processing sector in the country…We can jumpstart this processing sector."
See the full news release about this USDA Food for Progress program.
Afghan children’s faces went from sick to normal in a month after NEI added soy foods to their diets.
Afghan children and adults have already benefited from soy milk and other foods in their diets through the efforts of Nutrition and Education International Inc (NEI). USDA funding will allow WISHH and its partners to expand the use of soy to improve health in Afghanistan where more than half of the children under age five suffer from moderate or severe stunting.
All photos on this page are courtesy of Nutrition Education International Inc. (NEI)
In 2002, WISHH collaborated with the North American Millers Association (NAMA) to field test soy-fortified wheat flour, which has 12 percent soy flour in the blend. Flour fortification helps reduce the severity of iron and other micronutrient deficiencies, particularly among women of child-bearing age. WISHH and NAMA worked to ensure the product suited local Afghan tastes.
