The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) organized on Thursday, the “Healthy School Lunchbox” event at Carrefour, City Center Ajman.
The event comes in the wake of launching the “Healthy School Lunchbox” program, on August 24, by MoHAP’s Health Education and Promotion Department in association with Carrefour Stores (run by Majid Al Futtaim Group in the UAE). The program activities will last until September 14.
Launched in five emirates including Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah, the program is focusing on three main activities including awareness platforms at Carrefour Stores.
These platforms would help provide mothers with the healthy ways of preparing the lunch box through healthy recipes prepared by the chef and raising their awareness about the appropriate shopping skills, by educating them how to read the food label of food products and how to choose the healthy food alternatives for their children.
Additionally, a number of workshops will be held for the employees of MoHAP, medical districts, in addition to launching social media campaign on MoHAP’s social medial platforms, which includes publishing healthy recipes, so as to cover as many mothers as possible all around the country.
A Comprehensive and Integrated Healthcare
Dr. Fadila Mohamed Sherif, Director of MoHAP’s Health Education & Promotion Department, said: “The Healthy Lunchbox program is part of the activities of the national initiative “Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in the Society” which aims at consolidating the preventive aspect, scaling down the rate of lifestyle-related diseases and reducing obesity rates among children by 2021.
Sherif noted that the school lunchbox is an integral part of the healthy nutrition for children and it’s also one of the main reasons for obesity among children owing to the improper choice of meals by parents.
She underlined MoHAP’s keenness on launching awareness initiatives and campaigns to raise the community health awareness and to encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles as well. This comes as part of MoHAP’s strategy aiming to provide comprehensive and integrated healthcare in innovative and sustainable ways to ensure the prevention of diseases in society.
For his part Philippe Peguilhan, Country Manager of Carrefour UAE at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, said: “We are delighted to partner with the Ministry of Health to organize events that serve Carrefour visitors across the UAE. At Carrefour, we do believe in the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles, especially for children. We will, through this campaign, sow the seeds of the healthy upbringing and food culture by providing parents with healthy recipes, appropriate dietary alternatives and how to read the food labels for each product”
Preparing Healthy Recipes Booklet
Nouf Khamis, Deputy Director of Health Education and Promotion department said: “We are preparing quick and healthy recipes booklet for the school lunchbox, taking into account the views of families coming from various nationalities and cultures after holding a series of workshops and meetings with a number of mothers in schools.