Elsie Guwor

Certified dietician Elsie Guwer has joined the Niapele Project as our nutrition consultant for the School Nutrition Initiative.

Educated in the U.S. and in Liberia, Guwer boasts years of experience with nutrition surveys and education programs as well as providing consultancies for government, international agencies and the UN.

Her approach involves ensuring that each student meal maximizes the calories and nutrients the kids need to stay alert in class and to grow healthy and strong.

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Guwor leads a team of university students in performing assessments of the school population to identify rates of malnourishment.

She provides advice and referrals to those students who are found at the highest risk and will monitor and evaluate the impact of the nutrition program by performing additional assessments throughout the year. Her analysis will allow us to evaluate the strengths of the program as well as identify areas for improvement.

Guwor trains SNI kitchen staff and stresses the importance of good hygiene throughout the school. In the past, she has also assisted in developing informational workshops so that parents of students can improve their nutrition at home.

Guwor has worked with The Niapele Project as part of the School Nutrition Initiative implementation at the Carolyn Miller School (CAMES) in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia. She is also acting as an advisor for the SNI in Bong County, where she will also be providing advice on crops and what kinds of foods the SNI Project Committees should consider growing, ensuring that healthy and wholesome foods are available as part of the program.

Born in the small village of Wenita, Bong County in 1941, Guwer was exposed to the importance of good health at a young age.

After the young death of two siblings, Guwor and her brother were brought to a neighboring village to be raised by a missionary nurse.

The nurse sponsored Guwor’s education and took her along to work at the neighboring hospital where Guwor first learned the importance of nutrition to recovering patients.In Liberia, hospitals do not provide meals for patients; it’s up to the family members to bring them food as well as clothing.

Many families fail to understand the important role that diet plays in health.
The poverty that is rampant throughout Liberia leaves many vulnerable citizens living at a subsistence level. Because they are limited in their choices of what to eat and in how much they can consume, they do not take the time to analyze the nutrition of their meal.

In 1964, Guwor graduated from Cuttington University and earned a scholarship to attend a year of school at Iowa State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in dietetics. After working in Park Ridge Hospital in Chicago, she returned home, where she worked alongside Carolyn Miller (the CAMES namesake) at Phebe Hospital.

Marriage brought Guwor to Careysburg, Liberia, where she served as a school principal before eventually joining the staff at University of Liberia.
Guwer has been an assistant professor of human nutrition and consumer education at the university since 1975. She earned a diploma in health science and nutrition in Holland in 1977 and over the years has attended numerous international conferences on nutrition, health and women’s issues.

During the war, Guwor worked for the Lutheran Church’s income generation project for women and headed a study on nutrition and food security for the Liberian Ministry of Agriculture.

Guwor says malnutrition in Liberian babies stems from the lack of a traditional weaning food and that mothers, particularly in small and remote villages, need to be educated about this.

Since she was young, Elsie has wanted to help her country people lead healthier lives.