A bid to address malnutrition
In a bid to address malnutrition, a daylong Nutrition Olympiad was held at the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) yesterday.
With financial assistance from USAID and EU, the Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID), Ministry of Food, Meeting the Under-nutrition Challenge project of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organised the event.
At total of 17 clubs of educational institutions from different parts of the country took part in the Olympiad themed “Nutrition and Empowerment of Youth for a Healthy Nation”. Such an event was also held last year.
Food Minister Qamrul Islam inaugurated the event yesterday ahead of National Nutrition Week that will begin tomorrow. He said safe and nutritious food is a constitutional right of every citizen.
The government is working to ensure such food for the countrymen, he added.
USAID Deputy Director (economic growth office) David Westerling said ensuring nutrition for a nation is one of the factors for development.
He also said to make a world free from malnutrition, youths can play the part in creating awareness through different campaigns and the USAID will always help in such endeavour.
Director General of Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (Ministry of Food) Badrul Arefin, Chief Executive Officer of BIID Shahid Uddin Akbar, Chief Technical Adviser of FAO Naoki Minamiguchi and a delegate from European Union Mario Ronconi were also present during the programme.
The club members participated in different competitions including cooking, food design and street play.
Besides, there were different sessions including the importance of nutrition among adolescents and thoughts of youths in food security and nutrition.
Comments