Improving nutrition and health in secondary cities like Bungoma and Busia is a key goal of the NICE project. The project conducted a social marketing campaign called “Tuelimike” through activations in schools, clinics, markets and among small-scale farmers.
The Tuelimike campaign, which translates to “Let us be Informed/Educated,” took place in Bungoma and Busia cities in Kenya in April and May 2023. The campaign’s tagline was Chakula Bora; Maisha Bora (Healthy food/Healthy or Happy Living). The campaign targeted women, children under the age of five, farmers, fishermen, and adolescents aged 13 to 18. The goal was to collaborate across agricultural, health, and education sectors to enhance urban diets in urban cities and behaviour change.
The social marketing campaign educated the community through important messages such as Live Well, Eat Well, and Farm Well and incorporated the use of jingles and support of a local popular musician by the name of Steve Kay who helped to draw in the masses. The key locations were selected based on stakeholder suggestions and we had a nutritionist on board who provided and illustrated key information through the nutrition wheel.
In Busia County, the social marketing campaign reached 8,200 people, with 6,120 people directly involved, providing a 75% engagement rate. The market activation drew the most individuals (5,700), followed by farmers activations, school activations, and clinic activations (1,130, 1,000, and 800, respectively). Bungoma County also had a successful campaign period with a reach of 6,200 people with 4,950 people directly engaged through our campaign. The school activation attracted the largest number of 5,096 students followed by market activations with an estimate of 2,000, clinic activations followed with 584 followed by the farmer activations with 166 participants.
The Tuelimike Campaign highlighted key insights that emphasized that the uptake of healthy food in line with good nutrition is growing in acceptance in Bungoma and Busia urban cities and small-scale farmers when empowered can be agents of change and can share nutrition habits with the young generation.