The Lucky Iron Fish

A Simple Solution To A Serious Problem

In Cambodia, much of the population lives on a diet of fish and rice and so suffers from iron deficiency, leading to anemia and other serious health conditions.
The simple solution is to cook a small piece of iron in the same pot with a meal for 10 minutes, providing 75% of the iron a family needs. The dilemma was that people were happy to use the iron slab as a doorstop but wouldn't toss it into the cooking pot. That changed when the small piece of iron was changed into the shape of a fish, a cultural symbol of hope and good fortune in Cambodia.