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Thanks to funding from the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship (QES) Program and a partnership with Farmers Helping Farmers, two 精童欲女 Foods and Nutrition students were able to participate in an international research and development project in Kenya during the summer of 2019. 

The five-year project, led by John VanLeeuwen at the Atlantic Veterinary College, was started in 2015, integrating veterinary and nutrition research and development work. Fourth-year students Julia Heckbert and Haley MacKenzie left for Kenya in May, spending a three-month internship working with women鈥檚 groups and farmers to better understand their traditional food practices. They first learned about the opportunity through Dr. Jennifer Taylor, professor with the 精童欲女鈥檚 department of Applied Human Sciences. 

鈥淪he is very passionate about the work she does in Kenya and shares her experiences with the classes that she teaches,鈥� says Haley. 

鈥淭his opportunity provides a great experience for students who have a desire to learn about other cultures,鈥� says Dr. Taylor, who has travelled to Kenya eight times as part of nutrition research and development projects. 鈥淭he internship provides experiential education, increasing students鈥� experiences working with diverse cultures and creates global citizens, which is consistent with the goals of the QES program.鈥�
 
The students' ambitious work involved three main tasks: delivering nutrition education sessions to small groups of Kenyan women who would deliver similar education sessions to larger women鈥檚 groups; conducting interviews with local women about farming and nutrition to assess the effectiveness of the agriculture and nutrition programming; and, completing school meal program assessments. They worked closely with translators and school officials, and documented their findings.

鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to describe a typical day,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淪ome days we would go to a school for an assessment, or we would do four different one-on-one interviews with women using the Farmers Helping Farmers questionnaire. Other days we carried out a nutrition education session or visited the local hospital to learn about the role of dietitians at their facility.鈥�

鈥淥ur biggest task was interviewing women to collect data,鈥� Haley says. 鈥淲e planned to interview 70 women and each interview took around one hour to complete. Most days we would leave in the morning and aim to do three to four home interviews, which would take us to about 3:00 or 4:00 pm and then we would head home to enter the data.鈥� 

Julia and Haley also participated in traditional meal preparation methods while leading their education sessions, cooking with local women.

鈥淲e trained five women selected from a women鈥檚 group to be the 鈥榗hampions鈥� or leaders of the session,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淭hey learned nutrition messages, then helped us cook the modified traditional meals and present the knowledge and food to the rest of their women鈥檚 group.鈥�

Between the demands of their research tasks, Julia and Haley captured their experiences while writing blog posts on the Farmers Helping Farmers website.  

鈥淚 did enjoy talking about my experiences on the blog because it was a great way to keep my friends and family at home informed and updated on what we鈥檇 been up to,鈥� Haley says. 鈥淚 have these blogs saved on my computer as well and it鈥檚 nice to look back and read them, almost like a journal.鈥�

鈥淚 had never written a blog before and I was reluctant to start, but I think it is important for those contributing to Farmers Helping Farmers to see where their money is going and what the organization is actually doing in Kenya,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淲e only saw a portion of the projects being done, but we learned a lot.鈥�

鈥淭here is no better way to learn about a culture than to be directly immersed like we were.鈥�

The work was demanding and rewarding, but there was also time for leisure activities and some sightseeing. 

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 all work,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淲e were able to visit the elephant orphanage and giraffe manor in Nairobi, go on safari, and visit Hell鈥檚 Gate National Park and Crescent Island. We also travelled to the coast and went to the beach on our week long break.鈥�

As the students reflect on their internship, they share many amazing stories and memories of the Kenyan people. 

鈥淚 loved all the work that we did,鈥� says Haley. 鈥淭he best part of the experience for me was the people that I met, both those that I grew closer with over the summer and those that I only met once or twice. Many Kenyans that we visited live in poverty and struggle to put food on the table, but yet they are the most joyful people you鈥檒l ever meet.鈥�

鈥淭here is no better way to learn about a culture than to be directly immersed like we were,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淲e actually learned Swahili and the local language of Kimeru while living in Kenya and found that culturally we are more similar than we are different.鈥�

The experience positively changed their perspectives on their lives in Canada, and their future academic and professional goals. 

鈥淭his experience has enhanced my desire to do research in the future,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淚 would like to incorporate research and continued learning into my future plans.鈥� 

鈥淚 decided to return to Kenya for three weeks this summer to complete the second part of my placement,鈥� Haley says. 鈥淪o this experience definitely changed my plans. It has also led me to lean towards working in public and population health as an international dietitian because I really enjoyed working outside of Canada.鈥�