[Kampala, Uganda, September 10, 2020]
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is delighted to launch a new book on nutrition entitled “Surviving COVID-19: The Neglected Remedy.” The book is written by the Natural Food Barefoot Guide Writers’ Collective.
How best can people across Africa deal with COVID-19? How can those in densely populated urban areas or remote rural villages in Africa best survive COVID-19 if they get infected?
This mini-Barefoot Guide provides a compelling and accessible answer that is within our reach. It is available as a free download here: https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/barefoot-guide-surviving-covid-19-the-neglected-remedy_compressed.pdf
You will find out in these pages what COVID-19 really is, and the indispensable role of healthy food systems and healthy diets in surviving the COVID-19 pandemic.
AFSA Chairperson, Dr Chris Macoloo said, “There is a renewed interest among Africans in knowing more about the fundamental correlation between a healthy life, a healthy diet, and a healthy food system to fight against the coronavirus. This book is an excellent resource to learn and act.”
The book also explains how to obtain and prepare food to maintain its medicinal value, including information on local and indigenous plants and traditional preparations filled with the best nutrients. We celebrate our healthy traditional African diets based on this marvellous gift from nature, validated and boosted by modern scientific knowledge.
Dr Million Belay, General Coordinator of AFSA, said, “AFSA feels that agroecology, with its emphasis on diversity, natural ways of farming, traditional ecological knowledge and a farmer-centred approach, is the best way of countering COVID-19 and future pandemics, as well as other diseases. This Guide is a much-awaited response to the call for the best diet in these times of COVID-19 in Africa, and a further testimony that agroecology works for Africa.”
COVID-19 is a wakeup call to us all. Let’s turn away from over-processed, unhealthy foods produced using harmful chemicals and return to growing and eating a great variety of natural and nutritious foods.
AFSA is the most prominent continental voice for food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa. It is the largest network of networks in Africa with more than 40 network members and a combined potential reach of around 200 million people. Its membership embraces farmers, indigenous communities, pastoralists, hunters and gatherers, fisherfolk, consumer networks, women and youth networks, faith-based organizations and civil society organizations.
Happy reading! Good health!
ENDS
For further information or interviews, please contact:
John Wilson: Member, Natural Food Barefoot Guide Writers’ Collective.
Email: spiritvaults@yahoo.co.uk
Dr Million Belay: AFSA General Coordinator
Email: million.belay@afsafrica.org
Bridget Mugambe: AFSA Program Coordinator
Email: bridget.mugambe@afsafrica.org
[…] At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first Barefoot Guide in the agroecology series, “Surviving COVID-19: The Neglected Remedy,” was […]