Anemia is a serious problem throughout the developing world and it has serious consequences for the health of women and children in particular. After he graduated from the University of Guelph, in Canada, and while awaiting the start of his post-graduate studies, Chris Charles took a summer job in Cambodia.
Much of his work concentrated on was trying to persuade villagers to increase the amount of iron in their diet. Charles and his team tried to persuade the village women to cook in iron pots or put chunks of iron into their pots while cooking as the iron transferred into the food can help combat anaemia. But the women refused – the pots were too heavy and the chunks of iron were – well, probably just too ugly.
Undaunted, Chris Charles and his team kept working on the problem. They tried all sorts of iron shapes to no avail until they hit on the idea of making a shape that looked like a local fish that was considered lucky. This time it worked. The women liked the 3-4 inch lucky fish and began to cook with it in their pots.
As it happens, the iron fish really was lucky, at least insofar as it brought health and well being to the villagers. Within a short time the use of the iron fish helped anaemia levels to plummet.
This is an example not only of innovation but also learning to – figuratively – speak the language of the people with whom they were working. When the development workers offered the iron fish in a way that could be understood by the locals, they heard what was being said and participated in the process of helping themselves.
Deceptively simple.
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Related articles
- Lucky Iron Fish Saves Lives in Cambodia (neatorama.com)
- Lucky iron fish persuades Cambodian women to cook with iron, stave off anemia (boingboing.net)
- A cute, superstitious developing-world-friendly solution to the Anemia problem (think-micro.com)
- A cute, superstitious developing-world-friendly solution to the Anemia problem (oatsandsugar.com)
- Canadian scientist discovers the magic of saving lives (osocio.org)
Ironically, I am taking my husband to the doctor today because he has too much iron in his body which can be very dangerous. We had been using an iron pan for three decades, but stopped with the hopes it was the culprit (it wasn’t). We miss the iron pan (I wonder if not using it has affected my health?). Hoping for good news today.
Interesting post as always.
I hope you had good news at the doctor – thanks for taking time to comment.
Yes, it was good news. 🙂
Necessity has oft been the mother of invention. Thanks!
‘Tis true, Nancy, ’tis true!
great post.
Thanks – glad you enjoyed it.
Love it – so simple, so obvious – once again proves that you should always approach a culture on their own turf and not try to imprint your own set of values etc on them – Thanks for sharing 🙂
It’s such a good (and straightforward) example of people doing that very thing isn’t it?
Such a joy to see what the iron fish can do! Wonderful reciprocity of concept brought to fruition!
Isn’t it amazing! What I love about this story is how well it shows that people will participate in their own well-being as soon as it makes sense to them. Very often we think people are just resistant in order to be difficult but I wonder how often the truth is that what they are being offered (training, education, help etc) makes no real sense to their reality and so they can’t ‘buy’ in? I don’t really know, though – that’s just what I think!
This is a great story with a happy ending… I’d take one of those lucky fish. Brilliant idea! 🙂