Nestle to teach PWWB children about nutrition

LAHORE: Punjab Labour and Human Resource Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar and Nestle Pakistan Managing Director Bruno Olierhoek here Monday jointly inaugurated a Nestle Healthy Kids Room at the Punjab Workers Welfare Board (PWWB) Higher Secondary School in Nishtar Town. On this occasion, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said, "Pakistan faces an acute malnutrition problem and nowhere is it more evident than among the children of workers. The Nestle Healthy Kids programme addresses the issue by creating awareness among parents, teachers and students as to the importance of healthy eating in children from within the diets they are already consuming. I take this opportunity to extend my fullest cooperation to Nestle Pakistan in their mission."

While, Bruno Olierhoek said, "As the world's leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness company, Nestle is happy to promote healthy eating habits among Pakistani children. The Nestle Healthy Kids programme is based on multi-partnership approaches and the PWWB Higher Secondary Schools are certainly helping us take the programme to more kids in the region."

He added that keeping in mind the double burden of malnutrition (National Nutrition Survey 2011) among the children in Pakistan, ' Nestle Healthy Kids Programme' was developed by Nestle Pakistan and kicked off in the local market in 2010 which is now a nationwide programme. Two Nutrition books were developed for school children between the ages of 6 to 16 years, as part of the curriculum for the project. The partnership between Nestle Pakistan and PWWB is proving instrumental in training teachers in addition to providing NHK books and related material free of cost. Two NHK Rooms have already been completed in Multan and Lahore. In Phase 1 of the programme 50 teachers would be trained in Multan and Lahore to provide healthy nutrition and hygiene education to 7,000 children.

From 2017 onwards, the programme will be implemented at all PWWB Schools. Meanwhile, the Company spokesman said that Nestle Healthy Kids Programme was launched in Pakistan in 2010, and till date has imparted nutritional awareness to about 85,000 children (6 to 16 years) in the rural, sub - urban and urban areas of the country through specially developed curriculum books targeting different age groups to teach healthy and nutritious practices; importance of good nutrition; types of nutrients and importance of physical activity. It has a nationwide outreach covering Lahore, Sheikhupura, Multan, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Karachi.