The“Sight and Life in My Life” Essay Competition nd Life e mpetition

SIGHT AND LIFE | VOL. 25 (2) | 2011THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITION11Prince AbugriSight and Life in My Life:A Life-Changing gEncounterI first learned about Sight and Life in August 2009, when Ijoined Presbyterian Primary Health Care (PPHC) – Bolgatanga,Ghana after school. I completed my University for Develop-elopmentStudies (UDS) in Ghana and now have a bachelor ofscience in Community Nutrition.One day, I was at the office and came across an old magazinewith the inscription Sight and Life, and began to lookthrough it. It was a 2008 edition and I was so happy aboutthe wealth of information it contained. I fell in love with themagazine; it led me to its website, where I learned more aboutthe organization and its work on improving the health of themasses. There, I came across a “call for proposals”, askingorganizations to submit proposals for the funding ofnutrition programs in their communities.I told my immediate boss, who was a senior nutritionist,tionist,about the proposal and he said we should give it a try. Afterreading through the procedures and requirements, we sentour application to Sight and Life for consideration. Althoughwe were not selected for the maximum mum $15,000 grant, wewere asked if we would like to receive materials on nutritionand other equipment on a periodic basis. Our answer wasa resounding yes; since then, we have received hard and softcopies of relevant information on that equips us for betterhealth h delivery in the nutrition ion department.“We receive e relevantinformation to equip us forbetter health deliveryin the nutrition department”Prince AbugriUntil recently, PPHC did not have a comprehensivenutrition module for children and adolescents, especiallythose in school. This was because we did not have muchinformation to deal with on improving their nutritionalstatus. tus. I am, however, grateful to Sight and Life because I wasput in charge of developing a module for school children onnutrition,which I was able to do with the help of the booksandother materials we received from you. I also developeda small book called Youth Nutrition, to enable me undertakea programknown as “School Health”, which educates youngpeoplein our catchment areas – the northern and upper eastregions of Ghana. It teaches better ways to improve theirnutrition and health status, and educates them on how theycan help their illiterate parents and siblings at home.This program has received the necessary support fromthe school authorities and from the students themselves.They have sent appreciative messages to me, thanking me forhelping them learn how to improve their nutritional status,and their general health status. I have also been given thegreen light from the office to continue with the program in2011 at various schools, thanks to the wealth of informationI have received.⇢