Page 29 - November 2021 IB FINAL

Pacific Health Pacific Health

Malapoa College alone spent an astronomical Vt50 million sustained? Indigenous Ni-Vanuatu Agro-Industry Council (INAC)
($US446,000) annually on imported rice. has provided a budget to fund the programme while the Col-
“What the ban of rice now means is that we are spending lege is also working with its stakeholders to ensure the avail-
that money to buy fresh and healthy farm produce direct from ability of the chefs.
the farmers,” INAC’s Jacobe says. Under the scheme, Vanuatu Cooperative Business Network
As a crop and cattle farmer himself, Jacobe thanks the (VCBN) purchases root crops and vegetables directly from the
government for its support to the sector. farmers. The purchases are taken to the College’s pack house
“In fact, the global impact of COVID-19 is now a blessing for and peeled, cleaned and prepared for storage in cold rooms.
our farmers because what it means is that with the current Finally, they turn up on the plates of students in the school’s
ban of rice and other imported food products to be served in new 300-seat capacity dining hall.
schools, it is time to increase our farm produce to feed our
own children with good, fresh, nourishing foods.” Too much to eat?
“This means that we are we now focusing our efforts on As a former student of the then British Secondary School
feeding our own children first. It is only when we have any (now Malapoa College) in the early 1970s, I recall that our
surplus that we can turn to agricultural exports,” he contin- meals consisted mainly of meatballs, tinned fish balls mixed
ues. with potato, rice or island taro or kumala.
The new initiative is a “giant market” Jacobe says, as it Our expatriate teachers taught us how to use a fork and
guarantees a revenue stream for farmers and fishermen and knife and to eat without opening our mouths more than nec-
could also challenge seasonal employment abroad. essary. We were not allowed to bang our utensils on our plates
Malapoa College now consumes 5,000 eggs a week, 500 kilos either. We were not allowed to stoop over our plates or make
of root crops and 200 kilos of meat a day. any noise when we drank our tea.
At the end of the day, Principal Simon says his teaching staff The quantity of food on each plate was nothing compared
are keen to see what impact the changed diet will have on to the quantity and quality enjoyed by each student at Mala-
students’ tests and exam results. “This is the bottom line, and poa College today.
I am most keen to prove that this happens.” The memories of my experience then suggested that the
British seemed more concerned about table manners during
The NCD epidemic meals than providing meals to tempt our appetites.
“In the past, students would struggle to stay alert after This is the reason why my frustrations resulted in my jotting
lunch but now (with their dietary change) they are staying down a short poem entitled, ‘Too much to eat’, which went
alert all through the afternoon until the end of class.” on to be included in secondary school textbooks across the
The effort also seeks to address the increase in non-commu- Pacific region.
nicable diseases amongst students. It’s a national epidemic. In fact, it was not the amount of food on my plate that
Vila Central Hospital conducts on average two leg amputa- was “too much to eat” but the manners surrounding my meal
tions each week as a result of NCDs. which I felt were, “too much”. I was summoned to the head-
“Ultimately what we want the students to tell their parents master’s office over the poem. I think that poem also cost me
at home, is to demand a change in their diets, as well as how my scholarship.
it is prepared to better represent what they eat at school. I’m proud to see my former school now taking the lead in
“So instead of rice, we hope they will ask for ‘aelan kai- serving aelan kaikai and supporting our farmers, fishers and
kai’,” Principal Simon states. tourism industry chefs at the same time.
He continues, “While the programme looks very promis-
ing, the next important question to ask is, how can it be editor@islandsbusiness.com

REWARDING THE SICK?

Continued from page 27 level of government.”
“We must enact laws, revisit our regulations and policies to
promotion and health protection. address NCD in the whole of society... commerce, education,
“Health promotion means to keep healthy people and trade, agriculture, fisheries, tourism and so on. For example,
health protection are the laws, regulations, and policies that last week the stores ran out of fresh produce... where is agri-
protect,” Dr Kuartei says. culture and fisheries in food security?
He believes the “biggest threat will not be from COVID but “I think that this approach will be the beginning of truly
those who will die in Palau because NCDs and other diseases addressing NCD as [the] threat that it is to the national and
that will be neglected, or could not be sent off-island”. economic development of Palau.”
Now is the time to “bring health and education to the front
line of the national development agenda as it has done for the editor@islandsbusiness.com
environment,” he says. “This must be delivered at the highest

Islands Business, November 2021 29