The PABRA Family has lost one of its own!
It is with profound sorrow and sadness that we announce the passing on of Dr. Rodah Morezio Zulu on 4 May 2020. She was receiving treatment at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, where she died.
Rodah worked with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture as a Nutrition expert for the Bean Programme for more than ten years based in Malawi office.
She facilitated the integration of agricultural technologies such as biofortified beans and the promotion of the food basket approach into community-based nutrition support systems for combating malnutrition.
She was part of several development initiatives in human nutrition and food development initiatives in collaboration with international partners – Irish AID, World Bank, USAID, and local partners, especially the NARS and communities. In Southern Africa, she is known as MAMA BEANS, due to her tireless work to support the dissemination, adoption and consumption of NUA 45. Through her tireless efforts and expertise in food technology, we have products like bean flours, bean jams and pate created with successful bean processors and entrepreneurs in Burundi, Southern Tanzania, Lesotho and Madagascar.
She created several bean recipes which are now standard ways of cooking beans across thirty-one countries in Africa. She participated in the development of a recipe book under the AFIKEPO and KULIMA project, implemented in 10 districts in Malawi. The recipe book that was developed to address the research findings of the monotonous diet in the study areas including low dietary diversity, meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diets by children.
She helped in building the foundation for several food processing enterprises in Burundi, Madagascar, Uganda, and Tanzania to name a few.
Rodah was a member of several National Technical Working Groups (TWG) on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture, among them the Micronutrient TWG, Agriculture Nutrition TWG, and the Policy Advisory team. She has over the years provided evidence, recommended, and helped draft strategies promoting the use of biofortified crops including high iron beans. In Malawi, she has supported the drafting of the National Multisectoral Nutrition Policy 2018-2022; the Food and Nutrition Strategy 2019-2023 by the Ministry of Agriculture; the Adolescent Nutrition strategy (2019-2023) and the Nutrition, Education, and Communication Strategy (NECs) II. (2019-2023).
May the Almighty God rest her soul in eternal peace and grant her immediate family the comfort to bear this great loss. Our hearts are broken!