"When Canadian science graduate Christopher Charles visited Cambodia six years ago he discovered that anaemia was a huge public health problem.
In the villages of Kandal province, instead of bright, bouncing children, Dr Charles found many were small and weak with slow mental development."
"The standard solution - iron supplements or tablets to increase iron intake - isn't working.
The tablets are neither affordable nor widely available, and because of the side-effects people don't like taking them."
"His invention, shaped like a fish, which is a symbol of luck in Cambodian culture, was designed to release iron at the right concentration to provide the nutrients that so many women and children in the country were lacking.
The recipe is simple, Dr Charles says.
"Boil up water or soup with the iron fish for at least 10 minutes."
