Malnutrition: Covid-19 linked to resurgence in child malnutrition and stunting
When compared to the performance of other countries around the world, South Africa is listed as an extreme outlier for realising very poor health and nutrition outcomes, despite a relatively high GDP per capita.
According to the 2016 survey, The Vulnerable Group Series I; The Social Profile of Youth 2009–2014, the number of young South Africans living below the poverty line increased by 11.6 % during this five-year period. The national survey found, for example, that 27% of children under the age of three were stunted, with 9.5 % suffering from severe stunting.
There is a close link between early childhood malnutrition and stunting, and a child’s mental development. The ability to read, for example, is a necessary cognitive skill to function in modern society. According to a study by the publication Inside Education, stunting was a major cause for the failure of 78% of Grade Four learners to learn to grasp to read. Moreover, the study found that most South African households provide do not practice many reading activities, which further affects the mental development of children who have already had stunted growth in their early years.
The link between stunting and educational outcomes: A teachers story
Dudu Masango has more than 3 decades in the education sector. Starting as a lower phase school teacher, she went to serve as an adult educator and centre manager for 10 years.
School nutrition was first introduced in the early year 1996, she explains. At first, children would only receive biscuits and milk on certain days of the week. This was gradually increased over the next decade, enabling all school children to receive a full meal with sufficient fruits and vegetables, everyday.
Masango witnessed first-hand the transformation that these dietary changes made to the performance of her students. “Kids who couldn’t concentrate, were very irritable and slightly aggressive suddenly became wholesome kids who were brilliant with grasping what a Grade 2 pupil should learn,” she adds. She recalls that prior to the rolling out of this full nutrition programme, she often used her own money to feed the many learners who would come to school having had breakfast “As a parent myself, I could easily spot when a child had not had food.”
She expresses her concerns about the impacts the Covid-19 lockdown will have on children’s health. “At my school, kids were lining up at the closed gates because they couldn’t record in their minds that the school nutrition programme was also closed and they would not be able to get the daily meals they were used to.” Masango fears that the continued lockdown of schools will, once more, hinder the progress of South African school children.
The IsiZulu saying, “indlala ibanga ulaka,” literally translates as, “hunger causes aggression.” This highlights the close link between unhealthy soils, unhealthy nutrition, and an imbalanced mental health. As South Africa enters its eighth week of lockdown, mental health issues -- including depression, anxiety, withdrawal and aggression -- are increasingly under the spotlight. It is perhaps not surprising that there has been a rise in crime cases, including the looting of food establishments.
Covid-19 has exposed a strong connection between people and food. As more families grapple with the very real threat of food insecurity, we may see a reversal of substantial efforts to improve the early childhood education that could further threaten the overall learning, and mental health of our population. In a country already deeply affected by crime, it is important to carefully consider how to prevent the country from falling into this vicious cycle.
Written by Nomfundo Zondi
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
