By Sheila WILLIAMS
Nestlé Ghana and the Ghana Journalists Association have entered a partnership to drive nutrition knowledge among Ghanaians.
As part of the partnership, a special award category, on “Nutrition”, has been instituted for the 2019 annual excellence awards where an amount of GHS5,000 will be given as a prize for best nutrition story highlighting issues and raising awareness as determined by the awards committee of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). Journalists will also benefit from capacity building workshops in nutrition to spur their interest in reporting nutrition related issues.
According to the Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana, Philomena Tan, nutrition plays a pivotal role in the development and growth of economies as the health and wellbeing of people is a major contributing factor. “It is important to acknowledge that the health and wellbeing of a people contributes strongly to growth and development of economies around the world. Through nutrition education, we can help create a better future for our children”. She reiterated Nestlé’s ambition to help 50 million children lead healthier lives by 2030 and sited the partnership with GJA as one of the company’s initiatives in that direction.
The president of the GJA, Roland Affail Monney said, “it will not take rocket signs or deep pocket to provide balanced diet. By divine grace, relatively cheap and quantitatively huge sources of protein and vitamins are available everywhere in Ghana to encourage all of us to eat well”. He urged media practitioners to assume the role of nutrition evangelist and preach the nutrition message without ceasing.
Aside this partnership, Nestlé has over the years, been championing nutrition education through “non-branded” programs such as the Nestlé Nutrition Line, a public nutrition education program on radio with a reach of about 1.8 million listeners every month and Nestlé for Healthier Kids, a nutrition education program that empowers parents, caregivers and educators to foster healthier drinking, eating, and lifestyle habits among children.
