- Title: ISRAEL: School 'Superfood' Project Aims To Wipe Out African Malnutrition
- Date: 5th June 2013
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) BORIS ZLOTNIKOV, SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR TO PROJECT, TALKING TO ZEEV DAGANI, PRINCIPAL OF GYMNASIA HERZLIYA HIGH SCHOOL (SOUNDBITE) (English) ZEEV DAGANI, PRINCIPAL OF GYMNASIA HERZLIYA HIGH SCHOOL, SAYING: "If everything will be okay I hope that at the end of 2014 we will be in touch more or less with half a million children that suffer wit
- Embargoed: 20th June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa, Kenya, Israel, United Kingdom
- City:
- Country: South Africa United Kingdom Israel Kenya
- Topics: Education,General,Health,Science
- Reuters ID: LVAF57D6TWMY1C5DH9ENEFUYBD72
- Story Text: A group of Israeli high school children are devising an algae growing system in an ambitious project that aims to wipe out malnutrition in poor African communities.
Last year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that over a million children in the Sahel region of Africa could soon suffer from malnutrition, with many of them dying unless they receive millions in financial aid.
UNICEF officials believe that between 25% and 60% of those affected by severe malnutrition could die without emergency assistance.
The project is hoping to curb these numbers, and has been attracting interest from UNESCO, Rotary International, and international education organisations.
Pupils at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium school in Tel Aviv are working on a growth system for spirulina, an algae that's rich in proteins and used throughout the world as a nutritionmal supplement. Proteins comprise up to 70 percent of the plant's structure. It's relatively easy to grow using basic equipment like old plastic bottles but requires a lot of attention and effort by the children to oversee.
The students are currently at the 'doubling stage' where they try to get the algae to reproduce faster. They pass the liquid in the bottles from vessel to vessel before carbon dioxide is injected into the bottles lined up in a large wooden stand.
"We put the bottles in and it gets this direct sunlight from the sun and we also have these little tubes that mixes them and gives them carbon dioxide," said 14-year-old Feiyah Hadar.
Algae needs ample sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, and aerating the mixture like this averts the need for pupils to take the bottles home and shake them by hand, as they once did.
Boris Zlotnikov, the project's technical adviser, comes to the school once a week from Adama, a farm in the Negev where he too breeds algae. He offers professional advice and also gives the students tips to save money during the algae-breeding process.
"The Israeli climate is not that good for cultivating anything and we're here to adapt the current technologies for growing this micro algae to the Israeli climate and then to further adapt it to the rest of the world," said Zlotnikov.
The pupils are conducting a series of experiments to find the optimal protocol for growing spirulina algae and have set up a non-profit making non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Algeed. Fifteen-year-old Elad Dvash is Algeed CEO. One of his tasks is to examine samples of the liquid under the microscope for contamination.
"I'm checking the algae for contaminations and I'm checking if the contaminations are alive. If they're alive we'll have to throw the algae away," said Dvash.
Biology teacher Lydia Sasson told Reuters the spirulina originally hails from Texas, Unites States.
"It begins by getting spirulina from Texas, University of Texas, to Gymnasia and the children started to prepare the medium culture. You can see here they are weighing the ingredients for one litre and then they put the spirulina into the medium into a bottle and get it home," said Sasson.
"They (students) measure the Ph and they measure and they see it in the microscope. When the Ph gets to 10 they know that the spirulina is there with no other impurities, and that's how we put the culture outside," she added.
In addition to its aim of helping prevent malnutrition, the project has another positive byproduct. Once the initial project is complete, students will be sent out as self-styled teachers to ten other schools, five of them Arabic, to pass on their expertise and extend the project's reach.
Encouraging his pupils to work together with Arabic children is a matter of great pride to Zeev Degani, Gymnasia principal. It was Degani who came up with the original idea for the project. He has high hopes for its future.
"If everything will be okay I hope that at the end of 2014 we will be in touch more or less with half a million children that suffer with hunger, so it's a big project," said Degani.
An hour's drive from Tel Aviv is the Kibbutz Ein Shemer, which is working alongside Gymnasia's pupils. The Kibbutz set up its own Greenhouse Project in 1977 and is already integrating local Arabic and Jewish students in its efforts to grow algae.
Lina Biadsa, an Arabic student who hopes to study Biology at university, says she is excited to be working with algae.
"The algae are vital for the future and our industrial and nutrition sectors are very dependent on them. A lot of people use them for nutrition purposes, they are also used for gasoline and to purify water," said Biadsa.
Spirulina powder contains more protein than any other natural food, including all the essential amino acids required, and high levels of vitamins. Just 10 grams of it can provide a daily dose of proteins, antioxidants and Omega-3. It can be mixed with water or sprinkled on food and been described as tasting like liquid sushi. It has been consumed by people for thousands of years, but is found mainly in natural food stores.
According to the students' vision, implementing the protocol for growing the algae in schools would make it possible for hungry children around the world to grow the algae themselves to stave off malnourishment. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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