Directly translated from its Togolese name "yovo-vi-ti," it means the little plant from the white man. Its leaves have been used for centuries to treat malnutrition and various illnesses, and many NGO's throughout Africa promote its nutritional benefits through local education programs in the community. Hospitals and pharmacies sell the leaf powder to patients. It grows readily along the roadside and is found in the market. People use the trees as fences, and the leaves in stews and sauces.
So what it is? Moringa is a plant native to India that now grows in West Africa. Similar to spinach, the Moringa leaves are high in certain vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A and Iron. But unlike spinach Moringa is also very high in protein - good quality protein (eight of the nine essential amino acids!) which is quite unusual for a plant food. I first heard about Moringa in December when the hospital manager suggested we look into using it on the ship with our patients regularly, as it was already being used sporadically in the baby feeding program.
This week, I went out with the agriculture team to visit a Moringa farm. My thought was that if we could work with one of the local NGO's that grows it in good conditions and sells it in the market, we could potentially purchase it to give to families. So many mothers here don't have the financial means to purchase formula, so babies get porridge - a mix of flour, milk and sugar that they introduce after or in addition to breast milk. However, milk, sugar and flour don't provide a whole lot of nutrition for a growing baby, so NGO's throughout Africa have been encouraging mothers to add the Moringa powder to the porridge to provide better nutrient coverage for these growing babies.
Our agricultural specialists Ken and Jean Claude and I headed out to the local village of Tsevie earlier this week to check out the Moringa farm. In true Mercy Ships fashion, we were stopped multiple times by Africans whistling us to the side of the street as our Mercy Ships land rover trudged along down the dirt road. "When are you coming? Can you help me with my cataracts?" Handouts were provided (always important to take along when Mercy Ships branded) and we went on our way. After two phone calls and multiple stops to ask if we were headed in the right direction, we sped past Cristof waving us down on the side of the road. Cristof is our Moringa contact and works with the Center for Ecology and Development through the Mercy Ships Agriculture Program Food for Life. He grows the Moringa in a co-op here with about twenty other Africans who farm the land. Below is Cristof holding a Moringa leaf on the farm.
But before we got to see the Moringa we made a quick pit stop at his house. There were a few people to screen that heard we were coming through the village. Here we were, two agriculture specialists and a dietitian, looking at surgical candidates! Ha! After some quick histories and photos we were on our way to the farm. This is the road (or lack thereof) that we took to get to the farm. It was basically a dirt path made for a bike, and the land rover had no problems plowing through the bushes and trees.
I learned that the Mercy Ships agriculture program teaches the local farmers many things. They teach them how to rotate crops, and how to keep the soil nutrient-rich year after year. The general practice in Africa is to burn the land at the end of the harvest season which robs the soil of nutrients. Here is a burned area on the way to the co-op:
Below is an area that hadn't yet been burned. They will be growing pineapples on this part of the land.
The Africans use machetes to chop down the growth into farmable land. You can see the area that has already been cleared in the foreground and the yet-to-be-chopped area behind. Sometimes Africans have the stereotype of being lazy - especially the men, but let me tell you the Africans working out in the field in the hot sun were as far from lazy as you can get! I have never been so hot in my life. While I come from Arizona where it can get pretty dang hot, this is a new level of hot here in Africa. I lost multiple liters in sweat at the farm and I cannot even begin to imagine working in this humidity and sun day in and day out. Thank goodness for shade huts!
Then we traveled to see where the Moringa is dried. It must be dried in the shade to prevent nutrient loss. The leaves are then ground, packaged and sold in the market in Lome two hours south. Basically it's like dried high protein vegetable leaves. Here are Cristof, Jean-Claude and I outside the drying house.
On the way out we went through a pineapple farm....
...and ate some pineapple off the core! In my hand is also a Moringa pod. You can take the seeds out of the pod to plant new trees.
After a long day at the Moringa farm we came away with this final product:
the dried Moringa powder. Perhaps it looks a tad bit questionable in these unmarked bags. Actually, when one of our doctors from TX came to the ship with Moringa in hand, we heard he got an earful at customs! In addition to the powder itself, I also came away with a new appreciation for rural farming. I had no idea how much effort goes into making these fields farmable, and how hard these Africans work. The African way of life here is so interesting, and every day I learn something new. In a country where malnutrition is so prevelant, I think there is exciting potential for what lies ahead in regard to Moringa application. More to come on that soon....
Lawson was overjoyed when he touched the bandages on his cheek. There will be more surgeries within the next year to complete the reconstruction of his face, but the immediate result saved and restored his life.
