Father forced to nurture nine children alone after wife dies days into post-delivery
Joseph Kamau shares his journey as a father in a mother-to-mother self-help group and how this has help him cater for his daughter's nutritional needs.
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For two decades Joseph Kamau collaborated with his wife Phidelis Wanjiru in nurturing their eight children.
While the wife took care of the children he went out to fend for the family.
And while he worked hard to meet the family’s needs he missed out on the opportunity to learn from his wife the basics of nurturing the children as he was the sole breadwinner of the family.
However, things came tumbling down in 2022 when he lost his wife six days after giving birth to their ninth child, living him with all the parental responsibilities.
“I was not able to process my wife’s death. I had to switch my attention to how I will care for my child. Confused, I had to learn it all with urgency less my child would have suffered nutrition rated conditions,” Kamau explains.
It was at this point that Kamau was introduced to Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) a community group where expectant mothers come together to learn about nutrition.
“I Joined the mother-to-mother baby self-help group in Munanda, Subukia out of necessity to learn on how to feed and be present for my daughter and her siblings,” he notes.
Kamau notes that it was at this BFCI group that he learnt how to use the right quantities of nan to “breastfeed” his child, weaning, going to the clinic and clothing her.
“I am a proud father since I have single handedly raised my child. I left work because I did not want my child to be raised by a house girl or relatives. My aim has always been to give her parental love, care and ultimately ensuring that she grows up healthy,” he notes
Christine Wangui Kihara, the Nakuru County Nutrition Coordinator observed that more needs to be done if we are to improve nutrition cases in the county.
“Currently Nakuru has three triple threats with malnutrition actively hindering the development agenda,” she notes.
County Nutrition Coordinator, Christine Wangui Kihara, speaks on how Nakuru county is using BFCI to improve child malnutrition cases within the first 1000 days.
She adds that recent data shows child malnutrition stands at 18. 5 per cent with Stunted growth, nine per cent of those who are underweight and 3 percent are wasted.
“To solve this threat as Nakuru county we are currently implementing BFCI in 10 sub – County because it is an activity that promotes and protects breast feeding, complementary feeding and optimal maternal nutrition in the first 1000 days of life (From the day a child is conceived to the day a child turns two years,” she explains.
Wangui notes that through BFCI parents are taught on what is good nutrition, what mothers need to be eating while pregnant, once she delivers, how she initiates breastfeeding within the first hour of delivery to be able to maintain exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.
“Beyond mothers BFCI has also been able to loop in men who expect to be fathers so that women are not left as custodians of information on nurturing children but also accommodate men in championing for nutrition and child nurturing,” she concludes.