Helen Keller International takes the fight against hidden hunger to women in Koinadugu district

Helen Keller International has extended its fight against hidden hunger to the women in Koinadugu district. The organisation is supporting an all-women farmers group known as Denkola Two Women in Agriculture.

The women are growing orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, a superfood tuber that is known for its high nutritional value, especially vitamin A. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are also addressing another growing concern in Sierra Leone and Sub-Saharan Africa which is hidden hunger.

Hidden Hunger is described as a new kind of hunger that is caused not by a lack of food but by food that lacks essential micronutrients. Foods without these micronutrients lack vitamins and minerals like iodine, vitamin A, iron, zinc, and calcium – necessary for growth and development.

The leader of the group, Haja Conteh, said hunger is part of the country, so “(their) group is growing the (orange-fleshed sweet potatoes) to fight and fix it with all (their) might”, she said.

Conteh grew up in a household that solely depended on agriculture for their daily sustenance but was swayed away from the practice by quick money-making business ventures like petty trading.

As she aged, she witnessed firsthand how hunger ravaged families – especially women and children – when she had to single-handedly shoulder the responsibilities of her extended family left by her husband. Since then, she vowed to return to agriculture, but where and when to start was a new concern.

Through Helen Keller’s work which started four years ago with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Agriculture, and supported by Irish Aid, to support women with tools and education to grow nutritious food in Koinadugu district, Conteh became one of the thousands of Sierra Leoneans who listened to the broadcast on a local FM radio about the health benefits of the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and how it addresses the underlying causes of hidden hunger.

After she reached out, she was connected with Abu Mansaray, the Block Extension Supervisor in her community. Mansaray guided her through the process of forming a group, locating a plot of land, and preparing the site for farming. He explained that growing the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes is easy and does not require back-breaking labour work and can thrive in hard conditions. He added that it takes between two to three months to harvest, unlike other tubers which take about six months.

The relationship with Helen Keller has also helped Conteh and the Denkola Two Women in Agriculture learn a range of new skills including caring for the crops and vein multiplication, using irrigation machines to ensure quality soil, building hand-dug wells to ensure all-year-round cultivation and marketing their harvests at local markets.

Helen Keller’s support for farming is not only limited to Conteh and her group. The organisation says that from Kono in the East, to Bo in the South, to Tonkolili in the North, and the Western rural-urban in the West, they support communities in 10 of the 16 districts in Sierra Leone.

“In just five years, more than 122 hectares of previously unused land have been converted to sweet potato farms, yielding over 900 metric tons. We’ve reached an estimated 800 farmer’s groups and their families with vitamin-enriched food that build healthy immune systems and protects children and adults from blindness and serious sickness” the organisation said in a blog.

Additionally, the organisation says it has reached more than 2 million households across Africa and Asia, providing 388,000 families with education and tools to grow, prepare, and sell micro-nutrient-rich foods, just last year alone.