project worked with vulnerable fishing families to identify unique problems and develop specific solutions for improving community nutrition.
While researching poverty and food insecurity in Kenya, Andrew Wamukota of Pwani University was rather surprised by what he found. His data showed that the most vulnerable communities living along the Kenyan coast suffered from higher rates of malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies.
Photo by Katie G. Nelson
“You would expect that since they have closer access to the sea, they would be able to feed their families with fish they catch, but that wasn’t always the case,” Wamukota said.
That led Wamukota and his project co-lead, Lora Iannotti of Washington University in St. Louis, to SecureFish, a project of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish. The program aims to understand the underlying causes of poor nutrition within vulnerable Kenyan communities and to develop solutions that increase access to and consumption of sustainable fish.