WISHH News

WISHH supports African HIV/AIDS Nutrition Efforts
Famine Exacerbates Nutritional Voids and Creates Orphans

The famine in many countries in Southern Africa is having devastating results on people with HIV/AIDS and their families. The World Food Programme reported in mid-September that their staff is seeing many elderly grandparents caring for large numbers of orphans. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is causing the number of orphans to rise dramatically to 4.2 million in six Southern African countries, according to the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund).

WISHH HIV/AIDS nutrition consultant Cade Fields-Gardner has returned from Africa where she worked with key organizations that want to use soy in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Because people with HIV/AIDS may need 50-100 percent more protein than uninfected people soy may be ideally suited to help meet their requirements for protein, calories and more.

The purpose of Fields-Gardner’s trip was to plan and implement programs that will demonstrate the health benefits and acceptability of soy in African HIV/AIDS programs. For example in Uganda, she worked with organizations like Africare to discuss their pilot projects with Textured Soy Protein (TSP). Fields-Gardner also met with The Aids Services Organization Ltd. (TASO), which is a partner in a U.S. Agency for International Development program, to discuss development of nutrition-related educational materials to support the program that includes distribution of corn soy blend and soy oil. The ACDI/VOCA organization requested WISHH assistance with nutritional data collection to demonstrate a health impact as well as soy recipes and cooking demonstrations for their HIV/AIDS program in Uganda that includes up to 60,000 participants.

“We have worked to develop relationships with government agencies, private voluntary organizations, and commercial interests to demonstrate the value of including soy products in their programs.  Over the last two years we have gained the status of a valued resource for these distributors and potential customers.  Our goal is to turn these demonstrations into ongoing and sustainable ventures for all involved.”