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Celebrating the Day of the African Child, key partners are recognising the positive impact Nestlé has on the lives of children in Africa.
Nestlé fully supports the 2018 theme for the Day of the African Child
“Leave No Child Behind for Africa’s Development” which is celebrated on 16
June. Through its newly launched
Nestlé for Healthier Kids
global initiative, Nestlé’s ambition is to help 50 million children lead
healthier lives by 2030. The company wants to help the new generations eat
and drink better as well as exercise more. It aims to achieve this by
focusing on three areas: improve knowledge using research, offer innovative
programmes and services and offer more nutritious food and beverages for
children and families, in line with the company’s commitments to reduce
sugar, fat and salt and fortify its products with vitamins and minerals.
Throughout Central and West Africa, key stakeholders have recognised
Nestlé’s efforts to bring to life its purpose of enhancing quality of life
and contributing to a healthier future as well as deliver solidly against
its 41 Creating Shared Value commitments.
In Burkina Faso, the Ministry of National Education and Literacy of is
looking into integrating the Nestlé’s pioneer school wellness programme as
part of its curriculum to promote health-hygiene-nutrition activities in
educational structures. The Nestlé for Healthier Kids has been successfully
piloted in the form of a classroom teaching session. Head of the School
Health, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Programe and the country’s Contact
Point for Nestlé for Healthier Kids implementation, Mr. Innocent Bamouni,
said: “The programme is well-run, and needs to be supported and scaled up
to cover more schools".
With the endorsement of the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal
Ministry of Education in Nigeria, the pilot Nestlé Healthy Kids programme
reached more than 81,000 children, and the scale- up aims to reach 17,000
children across 30 schools in 2018. Through Nestlé for Healthier Kids,
children learn the importance of eating nutritious and varied food options,
managing portions, choosing water and playing actively. During the launch
of the Nestlé for Healthier Kids scale-up in Abuja, representatives from
the ministries of health and education, the Nutrition Society of Nigeria,
Universal Education Board (UBEB), the Federal Capital Territory- Abuja and
Ogun State Universal Education Board pledged their support to roll- out a
successful programme.
In Ghana, the programme is run with the support of the Ghana Education
Service, the Ministry of Education, and the University of Ghana Nutrition
and Food Science Department. The vegetable gardening component of the
programme was introduced to enable children adapt the habit of eating
vegetables. Research has shown that children are more likely to eat
vegetables when they know how they are grown. According to Head Teacher of
the School, Mr. Lawrence Nyame, Duabone R/C Primary School in the Central
Region of Ghana, is under the School Feeding Program. “Vegetables grown are
added to other produce to cook for the pupils. He noted that the pupils
have learnt a lot from the module and are now encouraged to grow and eat
more vegetables at home”, he said.
Across the African continent, the Nestlé Nutrition Institute Africa helps
health care professionals (HCPs) to stay abreast of the most current
scientific information, by enrolling them on programmes like the Post
Graduate Programme in Paediatric Nutrition (PGPN) run by the Boston
University School of Medicine. As at 2017, NNIA’s training activities had
reached 21,795 HCPs, where cutting edge science and research topics
relating to infant and childhood nutrition are shared in order to empower
HCPs to improve the standards of care for children by familiarizing them
with evidence-based guidelines and latest nutrition recommendations.