Protein Powering: Undergrad tackles malnutrition and health disparities in Ghana.

Thompson, Sarah S.

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Edgar Akuffo-Addo '16 is dreaming big in order to bring health equity to his native Ghana and other developing countries. Last year, his vision came closer to reality when Projects for Peace funded his grassroots program, Enhancing Child Nutrition through Animal Source Food Management (ENAM), helping establish a poultry farm in the Gushegu district of northern Ghana to provide families with affordable meat and eggs and raise funds for community education.

In Gushegu, one-third of all children between one and five years old suffer from protein deficiencies that cause severe physical symptoms and delay motor and cognitive development. Beyond enhancing nutrition, Akuffo-Addo hopes the work can be a powerful catalyst for positive change in an area frequently torn by violence and civil unrest.

"Through my nutrition and humanities classes, I have come to appreciate proper nutrition as a powerful good and a moral obligation," says Akuffo-Addo, pictured at right. "Well-nourished children are more likely to be healthy, productive contributors to national development."

ENAM launched last summer with high hopes, but Akuffo-Addo and his team ran into several obstacles that delayed progress, from nonexistent roads to inflation to fuel shortages. A year later, Akuffo-Addo sees success and wisdom arising from these failures. His team has completed critical baseline research for targeting the specific causes of malnutrition in Gushegu, and added a 1.5 acre legume farm to ENAM's operations. Next, he's hoping to expand the program to other communities threatened by malnutrition.

As ENAM gains momentum, Akuffo-Addo isn't slowing down. He's been accepted to graduate school in Human Ecology's Sloan Program in Health Administration, and the abstract of his senior thesis on ENAM was accepted for presentation at the second International Conference on Global Food Security. With graduation on the horizon, his plans for the future keep growing.

"It is my dream to help create reforms to the health sector in Africa," he says. "I envision pioneering a health care system that is efficient and solves medicine's dilemma of infinite needs versus finite resources."

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Akuffo-Addo says he's gotten tremendous support from Cornell and Human Ecology faculty members, especially his mentor Rebecca Seguin, assistant professor of nutritional sciences. He also credits coursework in his human biology, health, and society major for better equipping him to view human health issues from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective.

Akuffo-Addo continues a journey begun as a child in southern Ghana with severe asthma, the youngest of four children whose parents often had to choose between paying rent or medical bills.

"I grew up acutely conscious of the distressing effects of health inequity, and what it means to be underprivileged and underserved," Akuffo-Addo says. "I hope to be among those who can bridge this gap."