By Solomon Gumah
Kunkua (UE/R) Oct. 09, GNA – A Team of officials from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have lauded its School-Age- nutrition programme for promoting positive nutritional behaviours amongst school children and ensuring their health and well-being.
The School-Age nutrition programme is being implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and seeks to inculcate healthy eating habits amongst pupils as part of efforts to address malnutrition.
The Team visited some schools in the Upper East Region on a working tour to assess the impact of the School-Age nutrition programme on the beneficiaries.
The programme involves planned healthy lifestyle activities such as a physical education day, protein day, fruit and vegetables day, water, sanitation and hygiene day with the overall objective of addressing issues of malnutrition amongst school children.
It is currently being implemented in about 100 schools in the area and contributing significantly towards positive nutritional behaviours.
UNICEF has also facilitated the provision of the Girls’ Iron-Folic Acid Tablet Supplementation initiative to all public schools in the area, to ensure that adolescent girls were protected against anaemia.
The visit by the Team to the Maurice Browne Memorial School coincided with the fruits and vegetables day where pupils brought various fruits including pineapple, orange, yellow-melon, banana to school.
Madam Christiana Azupio, the Nutrition Officer, Bolgatanga East District, said the programme had helped to inculcate the habit of eating balanced diets amongst schoolchildren.
She said “There are days, which are not even fruits, vegetables or protein day, but you will see schoolchildren willingly bringing them to school. It tells you how they have embraced the initiative”.
Madam Porbilla Ofosu Apea, the Health and Nutrition Officer, UNICEF, Tamale Field Office, commended all stakeholders for supporting the programme, and called for more collaboration with other partners to ensure that malnutrition was completely addressed.
The Team later visited Dr Samuel Kwabena Boakye-Boateng, the Upper East Regional Director of Health, who expressed gratitude to UNICEF for its support over the years and assured the team of exploring options to sustain the programme.
Miss Nsoh Immaculate Ayinbotimah, a 16-year-old student at Maurice Browne Memorial School at Kunkua in the Bolgatanga East District, who spoke about the impact of the programme on her, said it had improved her health and well-being.
She said her severe and irregular menstruation experience had stopped since the introduction of the programme in the school, saying since 2022, she had not absented myself from school like she used to do prior to the introduction of this programme, because of her improved health.
GNA