Kakas attend World Health Day event
Kaka is the Hausa word for grandmother. Fantsuam Foundation is supporting 124 Kakas caring for their grandchildren whose parents have died of AIDS. They may be elderly and coping with their own health problems quite apart from their caring responsibilities. Forty-eight of them attended an event organised by Fantsuam Foundation as its contribution to World Health Day celebrated on Sunday 7th April. The Kakas were given the opportunity to have their blood pressure checked by a local nurse and for those already suffering from health problems, to receive treatment for malaria and typhoid.
Zobo drinks
The mother of Filo, who works as a volunteer for Fantsuam, gave a short talk about locally available food and drinks which might help with the problem of hypertension - the theme for this years World Health Day. She had also made drinks of zobo, from the sepals of the sorrel plant, to provide what is described as a fruity and fragrant drink with a deep purple colour. The drink is not only attractive and made from locally available plants but also helpful in dealing with the problem of hypertension, in a village area which has a burden of people with strokes. At the end of the day one of the Kakas proposed a vote of thanks and a report and pictures were sent to HelpAged International.
Forest Garden
The sorrel plant is not the only locally available plant with medicinal properties. In Attachab, a piece of land that Fantsuam is developing to demonstrate the principles of permaculture, there will be a Forest Garden devoted to medicinal plants. They will be grown under a thatched roof to provide shade from the burning sun but allowing enough sunlight for the seedlings. Two people from Fantsuam have recently been on an exchange visit with a partner organisation and returned with artemesia and palm seedlings to be grown in the nursery. Artemesia is anti-malarial and used for centuries in China.
Fantsuam is already well aware of the value of local plants and cultivates Zogale, known as the African wonder plant, which is very nutritious especially for malnourished children.