Our second year student of Master’s degree in Life Sciences, majoring in Health Biomedical Sciences at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) Ms. Grantina Modern Andrew under the supervision of Dr. Elingarami Sauli Nkya, has just won a competitive research grant amounting to 20,000USD from a proposal submitted to Nestle Foundation http://www.nestlefoundation.org/e/research.htm

This grant will help her accomplish research on causal relationship between Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED) and growth failure (stunting) in children from the Rukwa region.

Despite the fact that Rukwa region is among the big four regions in terms of food productivity in Tanzania, it has highest prevalence (56%) of stunting in the country. So, this study seeks to solve this paradox, by studying the causal relationship between stunting and EED, as another possible cause of stunting in the region, apart from the commonly known food insecurity.