Cereamine

Cereamine is my new life.  Literally.  At the All-Volunteer conference that took place in December 2010, I attended a session on Cereamine presented by a PC Mauratania volunteer that now works in Senegal.  It intrigued me, but I didn't have an opportunity to implement it until this past October.  So what is Cereamine?  Cereamine is a flour made from 5 locally available ingredients that can be made into a weaning porridge.  It is made from 4 parts corn, 4 parts beans, 2 parts millet, 2 parts rice, and 1 part peanuts.  Each ingredient is roasted and then ground into a flour.  The flour is versatile and the possibilities are endless.

With this new product, I've been touring Kolda, teaching women (and some men) how to make this better-for-your-kids-than-flour flour.  At each training, I show with a pre-made batch of Cereamine, so the women know what it looks like and they can smell it and feel it.  Then, I have the women roast up a batch so they can see when the grains are considered roasted (and partially because it's the most difficult part of the process).  While the roasting is occuring, I conduct a discussion about nutrition reminding women that they need to breastfeed until at least 6 months, teaching them about moringa, teaching them about the food pyramid, and stressing the importance of having a balanced diet.  The women are usually really receptive and ask good questions (except for the one woman who asked if I was pregnant, which made me slightly self-concious).  After tha grains are roasted, I show the women that the ingredients emit pleasant aromas and I explain that I will take the roasted ingredients to a milling machine to have it ground into flour.  Next, we taste test the Cereamine!  No, I don't make them eat the flour, but a whip up a batch of porridge and have them try it.  I personally LOVE the taste of cereamine and will add peanut butter, bananas, honey, or other delicious ingredients to make a yummy breakfast.

I don't give things out for free here, so I would either "charge" 50 CFA (10 cents) for the class, where the women get sent home with a baggie of Cereamine or sell baggies of Cereamine afterwards.  This worked out perfectly because I didn't write a grant to conduct these trainings and I was buying all the ingredients out of pocket.  I still spent some money on this project, but I believe in this product and I love fat babies, so it was worth it.  The next step is to get women to sell it.  To date I've done close to 20 trainings (if not more, I can't remember anymore) and very few women have been moved to produce and sell Cereamine.  There are a few business women who work in Kolda with a lot of potential, which gives me hope.  My next step is sending it to the research center here in Senegal to get the nutritional content analyzed.  Once that happens, I will talk to health structures and phamacies to see if they will stock this locally produced product versuses the imported product from Europe.

As I begin my third year, I have people on staff interested in this and have already requested that I do trainings.  This is exciting and I can't wait to see what happens with Cereamine!

Peace & Porridge