Innovative girls, diabetes cake propels Malava Girls to national limelight
As the country struggles with treating 2.3 million diabetes cases in the recent years, the number is projected to rise to 3.5 million come 2045 raising concerns among health practitioners.
This is according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) that has warned Kenyans against unhealthy habits, physical inactivity, and uncontrolled eating habits (obesity) as some of the major causes of the disease.
According to them, the disease could eventually lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limbs amputations when not detected and managed well.
With the country’s current diabetes prevalence being estimated at 4.5% this year, there is still a significant number of cases that remain undiagnosed.
Diabetes patients are subjected to special diets that consist mostly of sugar free foods, and that is how a school in Malava sub-county took the initiative to come up with a cake that has natural sugar to enable patients enjoy the sweetness without affecting their sugar levels.
Friends Malava Girls High School will be storming the Science and Engineering Fair in Embu to represent their banana cake at the national fete.
The school principal Rose Abuko, while confirming their participation, lauded the girls’ innovative efforts and assured them that the school will continue to support STEM related courses.
She lauded the efforts stakeholders had injected in ensuring that the girls had all the needed materials to exhibit their works.
“As a school we are proud of our girls and we will continue to support and encourage our girls interested in venturing in mathematics and science as they are courses, if well pursued, could transform a society,” she said.
She said STEM education and innovations drive technological advancement in the country and help spur economic growth through creation of job opportunities and fostering of entrepreneurship.
She encouraged the young innovators to build on the experience to develop better innovations that will be successful.
“As you try to solve global problems, please note that there is no failure in this field of innovations and what you acquire is experience that you will leverage to do even better, so remember that everyone who takes part in this competition is already a winner,” she advised.
The innovators Lilian Nyanjira and Anne Barusi came up with the idea of baking a sweet banana cake for the sugar patients who can enjoy having a piece of cake that is sugar flavoured but with no health risks.
They say they came with the idea after realizing that most diabetes patients craved for sugary foods but could not consume those with artificial sugar as it could trigger their sugar levels hence endangering their lives.
“This cake is ideal for them as they can snack it away without worrying about their sugar levels rising and we intend our innovation to be fully implemented as a snack for sugar patients,” they said.
Their teacher Nathan Musiomi, said his students were ready to present their innovations at the nationals and hoped that they will emerge among the top and represent the country in the finals in South Africa.
“We are ready for the nationals and we hope that we will emerge winners and we also want to realize our innovation to be picked upon by confectionery companies to start baking these types of cakes for sugar patients,” he noted.
