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Together as One is a joint initiative with Rotaract Clubs of Hatton-Kotagala and Faculty of Medicine, SUSL focusing on the improving the nutrition value of the meals, nutritious diets for maternal health and small space Gardening techniques in the estate sector of the country. The targeted area is Dayagama in Nuwara Eliya District. The target audience is mainly the tea estate workers. Large inequalities exist in their access to and the utilization of, health services. Estate workers are largely dependent on the estate’s management for their basic needs such as housing, health, and education.
The project was held on 22nd of May at CP/N/Dayagama Tamil Vidyalayam, Dayagama, the targeted audience was general public in the Dayagama Estate Area including pregnant women and the children of the area. The children were engaged for the project because it assisted them to adapt to the accurate nutritional best practices from the younger age.
Session 1: Improving the nutrition value of the daily meals
The resource person for the session was Mrs. Nadeesha Nilmini, Lecturer in Department of Biochemistry of Faculty of Medicine, Sabaragamuwa University Sri Lanka and a Registered Dietitian & Nutritionist in SLMC. The session was mainly targeted on adapting to the best practices on nutrition education. The session covered on the methods of adding a nutritional value to the regular meals of Estate workers such as Roti etc. As per the initial community assessment done by us most of the Estate workers’ starchy food consumption is in higher level and their knowledge on the nutritional value of their meal also in a low condition. The resource person provided tips to reduce the starchy food consumption and the methods to make a rich food combination by adding green leaves and vegetables for their regular meal. As a future step of the project, there is plan to monitor their daily consumption to get the idea about their meals and provide suggestions to improve their life styles.
Session 2: Nutritious diets for maternal health
The second session was mainly targeted the pregnant women in the Dayagama Area. The resource person was Rtr. Jaazim Adhnan who is a medical student of Faculty of Medicine, Sabaragamuwa University Sri Lanka. The main focus on the need of additional nutritional value for the pregnant women during their pregnancy period. This was an interactive session followed by a Q/A session. Many questions were asked from the audience regarding the nutritional diet they should follow and the Rotaractors from Rotaract Club of FOM, SUSL were provided the required solutions for them to follow.
Session 3: Small space Gardening techniques
The third session was focusing on the gardening techniques which was done by the Rtr. Kaviyugan Prashanth. This session was the support system for the previous two sessions as it targeted on planting and gardening in estate areas. The session covered the usage of recycle materials for gardening such as plastic bottles, plastic cups etc. The resource person also demonstrated the step by step process to make a simple planting pot using a plastic bottle. There will be a monitorization of gardening techniques of themselves as the next step of the project.
The feedback session also conducted to get the comments about the session and to know about their requirements related to the domain. A donation of seed packets also happened as a support for gardening practices.
Penned By : Rtr. Kavinda Senarathne
