On 7th November, the University of Ghana’s Nutrition and Food Science Department released the results of the first monitoring and evaluation for the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme in Ghana.
Nestlé Healthy Kids is a global programme, which aims to raise awareness about nutrition, health and wellness and promote physical activity among school age children around the world through better eating, healthy hydration, greater physical activity or other key health measures such as hygiene.
It is implemented in Ghana in partnership with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the University of Ghana’s Nutrition and Food Science Department since 2011. Nestlé is the first company in the country to introduce an intervention for nutrition education at primary-school level.
The Monitoring and Evaluation assessed the nutritional knowledge, knowledge in hygiene and sanitary practices as well as behavioral change in the implementing schools.
Presenting the report to GES and the media, Dr. Gloria Otoo, from the Nutrition & Food Science Department of the University of Ghana, said: “The results demonstrate that the programme is effective in improving the overall nutrition knowledge and practice of beneficiary pupils.”
In the Central and Western Region, Nestlé Healthy Kids children were able to correctly identify more food groups (19.2%) and food nutrients (34.2%) than non-Healthy Kids ones (7.8% and. 3.4% respectively). The report recommends that the programme develops a parent component in order to enhance behavior change of pupils since the role of parents in the diets of children cannot be over-emphasized.
In a speech presented on behalf of Moataz El Hout, Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana, Aaron Fenu, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, mentioned that: “We are continuing to develop new ways to measure the effectiveness of our programme. Over time, we want to develop it into an evidence-based, impactful initiative that contributes to the health of local school communities”. He added that, “long-term success will depend on the ability of the education system to reintroduce nutrition education and physical activity in participating schools”.
In Ghana, the programme started on a pilot phase in the cocoa growing districts of Juaboso and Agona East in the Western and Central Regions. In 2013, it was scaled up to further districts, including Savelugu-Nanton, Kwahu North, Afram Plains and Adansi South/North in the Northern, Eastern and Ashanti Regions respectively. To date, over 10,000 pupils, 360 teachers and officials from 6 Districts have benefited from it.
Globally, Nestlé Healthy Kids reached 6.9 million children in 68 countries in 2013 alone.