Overcoming Food Insecurity in Nigeria

 In the year 2021, the United Nations asserted that the world is facing "unprecedented catastrophic acute food insecurity".

It will help to understand that food insecurity refers to a situation in which food is not abundantly available and accessible to the population. 

Nigeria is currently facing a kind of food insecurity that needs intervention. Many people are finding it hard to afford enough food for their families. This isn't just happening in 2021, for some years now, food shortage and food/nutrient insecurity have burdened the country.

This post aims to suggest solutions to the problem.

Every problem has a solution. You may wonder what the probable solution to the problem is. Well, it may sound like common sense reasoning, but the solution is to make food abundantly available and accessible to the population.

It's easier said than done. But the best solution to the problem is a sustainable solution that involves a systems approach.

It is the role of all stakeholders, and not just the government to ensure that we reduce hunger in Nigeria to point zero. The government should make good policies and laws that will promote sustainable agricultural practices, and fund good agricultural projects. Entrepreneurs should produce food at a more affordable rate and make it widely available and accessible to Nigerians; the use of technology for large-scale farming may be helpful. Individuals should be educated on food and nutrient security. And all other factors responsible for food insecurity in Nigeria should be addressed.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲

 Many times we set goals and end up not achieving them because of several reasons. 

One reason we don't reach our goals is that we do not have (enough) support to reach the goal. 

Hence we just leave it and move to something else.

Having support is very important for anyone trying to lose weight, because it's not easy, you're going to be tired. When you're tired, you need something to get you back up.

Support can come in several ways, including guidance, motivation, assistance, etc. 

In this case I'm talking about an accountability partner, probably someone that's equally motivated like you, and is trying to achieve similar goal as you.

I was listening to one guy by name, Jonny, he was teaching about goals, and he talked about how he was able to successfully lose weight some years ago.

He said his brother was his accountability partner; when he didn't feel like doing exercise which he ought to do, his brother would drag him to the gym 😂.

 When his brother didn't feel like..., he would drag his brother to the gym, that was how he losed weight like crazy.

Indeed the bible said two are better than one, because if one falls, the other would lift him up.

Try this out.

'hope you got value?

3 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝘿𝙤 𝙏𝙤 𝙇𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩

 1. Starving 😡 : there's no need to be that angry with food. Ok, jokes apart, starvation is an unhealthy way to lose weight.

One may end up losing muscle mass. Bad option❗

2. Setting unrealistic goal 🚶🏽🚶🏽

Trying to lose 200 pounds in 1 week  is not only unrealistic, it's a day dream.😎😏

One may end up becoming demotivated😣 when unrealistic targets are not reached.

It will be safer and better to lose 1-2 pounds per week in 10-20 weeks than trying to lose 20 pounds in 2 days.

3. Sleep Deprivation 🥴 when trying to lose weight, ensure you have enough good night's sleep daily.

Depriving oneself of sleep may lead to weight gain, due to increased appetite.

So if you are ready to lose weight the right way, set a SMART weight loss goal that will keep you motivated, eat healthy foods in moderation, have enough sleep, and do not forget to do enjoyable exercise too. 

Thank you.

Please join my free weight loss community on Facebook for more. Click Rebrand.ly/ebwlu to join now, or copy the link and paste in your browser if it doesn't open automatically.

Knowledge and Attitude towards Health Education as a Profession

 What is Health Education?

Who are professional Health Educators?

Do you know anyone whose profession is Health Education?

The essence of the thought provoking questions above is not necessarily so that you would answer them, however it is ok to know the answers.

I literally never encountered a professional Health Educator until my JSS3 (9th grade), and I won't be surprise to hear that you haven't encountered any yet.

Health Educators are indispensible, while the Doctor treats us when we get sick, the Health Educator teaches us what to do in order not to get sick and how to improve in our level of wellbeing.

But how many persons know about Health Educators?

How many children have you ever heard saying "I will be a Health Educator in the future"?

I recently conducted a study to ascertain the knowledge and attitude towards Health Education as a profession, among children in Agip Estate, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and I will share with you here the things I discovered.

The motivation for the study was my observation while a Teacher in one of the schools in that area; I observed that the majority of the students (during their career day, and from my personal interrogation) either said they wanted to be a Lawyer, Doctor or Engineer, absolutely no one said they wanted to be a Health Educator in the future; as a graduate of Health Education, that caught my attention, and I also believed there must be an explanation for that, so I set out to investigate the issue personally.

The first thing I discovered was that none of the Vocational aptitude textbooks available in the school had Health Education as a profession in it, however in some of the physical and Health Education textbooks, there was a mention of areas of specialization in Physical and Health Education, and Health Education was one of those areas, however it wasn't given much emphasis.

Secondly, the students' career choices seem to be influenced by that of their parents, at least some of them said they want to be this or that because their parents want them to.

Thirdly, I found that these children also had interest in high paying careers. Someone said "I want to be a Doctor so that I can earn plenty of money". 

Hence, I had a clue to what the problem was. However, I further designed a study to find out the knowledge and attitude towards the Health Education Profession; does it mean that the students have not been given proper career orientaion regarding Health Education? If they knew about the profession, would they like to be Health Educators? These were my thoughts.

The result of the study?

None of them (I mean zero) said they knew about Health Education as a profession, and none of them said they know a Health Educator. How about their attitude towards Health Education as a profession? All of them agreed that Health Educators are doing a good job, when I briefly explained who a Health Educator is, and most of them also indicated that they would like to be Health Educators, furthermore, one of them who affirmed that Health Educators are doing a great job, and that he would have loved to be a Health Educator also said that he wouldn't, because his parents want him to become an Engineer.

Hence there seem to be a low level of knowledge of the Health Education profession among our kids, however, they may have positive attitude towards the profession.

So more orientation is needed in our schools to increase awareness of the Health Education profession.

🅃🄾🄿 🄵🄸🅅🄴 🅂🄴🄲🅁🄴🅃🅂 🄾🄵 🄷🄸🄶🄷🄻🅈 🅂🅄🄲🄲🄴🅂🅂🄵🅄🄻 🅂🅃🅄🄳🄴🄽🅃🅂

Succeeding consistently is not accidental, hence there are principles that successful students consciously or unconsciously follow, 

🎓 SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS FORM A HEALTHY STUDY HABIT: Most successful students know that it would be counter-productive to study only during exams, 

so they start studying from the beginning of the semester & they study consistently, some join study groups too, 

but from my experience, personal study is highly effective, and this can be combined with group study. 

In fact a student who does not read on their own but only depends on lectures is already positioning him/herself below excellence.

🎓 SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS ARE MOTIVATED: I didn't say they listen to motivational speakers! Doing that is good, but if you don't have a reason why you want to succeed, you may do things that will keep you from succeeding. 

Your WHY, is your biggest motivation. Write down at least 10 reasons why you want to succeed.

🎓 SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS KEEP GOOD ASSOCIATIONS: Mind those you associate with, if you want to be successful. The truth is people want you to be like them consciously or unconsciously, 

If you associate with those who don't want to make A, chances are that you'll get infected with their mindset.

🎓 SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS HAVE TARGETS: Action and reaction are equal and opposite, you can't target at C, put in C effort and expect an A.

 Successful students have very high targets from the start of the semester. Some target at 90% from the onset, you won't be surprised when they finally score 77%.

🎓 SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS DO THEIR ACADEMIC WORKS WELL: No matter what you do, if you don't do your academic work, every other thing is a waste of time and effort.

They do their assignments, tests, practicals, exams, presentations, etc. and they do these very well.

If you are a student, always do your academic work and do it well.

𝕎ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕋𝕆 𝔻𝕆 𝕎ℍ𝔼ℕ 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝔻𝕆ℕ❜𝕋 𝕐𝔼𝕋 ℍ𝔸𝕍𝔼 (𝕄𝕌ℂℍ) 𝕄𝕆ℕ𝔼𝕐

🔖Wealth they say is determined by one's mindset.

It's pathetic how many complain about lack of money, 🙄

🔖Yes it is true that we may not have as much money as we want at times, but should our attitude be complaint & nagging?

😎Complaints help no one. What you need to do is the exact opposite, yes, 

🔖be grateful that you're able to realize that you need more of something, because this is the starting point of success in many spheres.

💰Learn as much as you can about wealth, and the art of money making.

💰Learn new skills

💰Be open to new opportunities.

💰Plan your financial destiny.

💰Invest your time, energy, money, etc. into building yourself to the person you want to be

💰Start investing in good assets once you start making money

💡It's not all about money, it's more of wealth & income-generating assets.

 🧿There are those that even if you take away all the money they have, they'll gain back much  money from their assets in just few days.

'hope you got value from this, you can share for the benefit of others. Thank you.❤

🅷🅾🆆 🆃🅾 🅶🅴🆃 🆁🅴🅻🅸🅰🅱🅻🅴 🅷🅴🅰🅻🆃🅷 🅸🅽🅵🅾🆁🅼🅰🆃🅸🅾🅽.

Should you believe a health information?

From who?

And why?

Please read this 👇 to the end.

Many years ago (about 350 years before Christ), Aristotle the great and famous Greek philosopher said a "spider has six legs", he thus classified it as an insect.

For many centuries, everybody believed that, no one dared to challenge the idea.

Until a curious scientist discovered that a spider does not have six legs, but eight.

Aristotle also, once stated that heavy objects always fell to the ground faster than light objects.

Many people believed this for nearly 2000 years.

Guess what. Your guess is as good as mine: a scientist also did an experiment that showed that the statement was wrong, a heavy and a light object was dropped together from the top of a tall building, it was seen that the both objects reached the ground at the same time.

Today, scientists will not accept a theory or idea that is not empirical.

There are so many health fads, fallacies and misconceptions out there.

How would you know which or who to believe?

The key is to only believe health information that has an empirical basis.

In some parts of Nigeria, it is believed that a pregnant woman should not eat snails, if she does, the baby will have an excess amount of saliva. Not only is this false, this can deprive her of some vital nutrients if snail is what she can afford or what she likes.

There are many other beliefs held by people that are both detrimental to their health, and lacks an empirical basis.

So who should you believe?

Although this is not a comprehensive thread on where to get reliable health information, the following sources are recommended:

💟 Competent health professionals such as Doctors, Health Educators, Nurses, Pharmacists, Nutritionists, etc. 

There is a good reason to believe expert opinion.

 Scientific journals, health organizations & some online sources can also be helpful.