Mondelez Egypt Foods,CARE launch EGP 8 m children health initiative in Upper Egypt

31 / 07 / 2019

• CSR
• health

Mondelez Egypt Foods – a leading snacks company – joined hands with CARE Egypt to launch an 8-million-pound children health initiative in the Upper Egypt governorates of Sohag and Menya.

The initiative is meant to spread awareness among children and their families about healthy nutrition practices.

The initiative falls within the framework of Mondelez’s CSR activities and efforts to serve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The  company seeks to positively affect people’s lives.

The initiative will buttress a national campaign which the Egyptian Ministry has recently launched for early detection of anemia and obesity among children.

According to the latest statistics by the Health Ministry, more than nine million children out of total 12 million suffer from anemia and obesity at the same time.

The initiative has three main objectives; namely spreading awareness about healthy nutrition habits among children and their parents, encouraging children to play sports and teaching children simple methods for cultivating some kinds of fruits and vegetables at houses and schools.

The initiative will also train teachers and rural entrepreneurs to adopt healthy lifestyle in addition to disseminating awareness among children and their mothers in this regard.

Managing Director of Mondelez North Africa Bilal Sharabati said the initiative is part of the company’s development efforts in Upper Egypt, referring to the company’s launch “Our Children’s Wheat ” initiative five years ago with an aim to increase wheat output in various Egyptian governorates.

He underlined the company’s “belief in the importance of cooperation between the private sector, the public sector, and civil society organizations to develop communities.”

Meanwhile, Amira Farag, the Corporate and Government Affairs Manager at Mondelez Egypt Foods, said Mondelez International Foundation invests about $50 million in projects aimed at improving children’s healthy lifestyles in 18 countries. Since the launch of these projects in 2012, the foundation managed to improve nutrition habits of more than 1.5 million children in five continents. This has been a catalyst for launching these initiatives in Egypt.

She said the company launched a pilot stage of the initiative in 2017 to ensure reaching the best results, noting that the outcome was promising and the company was enthusiastic to work with its governmental partners and civil society organizations to improve health and eating habits in Upper Egypt.

For his part, CARE Egypt chairman Hazem Fahmi voiced optimism about continued cooperation with Mondelez Egypt Foods, referring to their great success in implementing “Our Children’s Wheat” initiative five years ago.

He wished that they would realize the same success in implementing the children health initiative.

Under the initiative, Mondelez Egypt Foods and CARE Egypt has prepared curricula for teaching women and their children the basics of healthy nutrition and the importance of physical exercises.

In the pilot stage, 33 rural entrepreneurs and 16 teachers were trained in five governorates to get rid of obesity and adopt healthy eating habits. About 1,628 women attended sessions on ways of combating obesity.

Another outcome of the pilot phase was disseminating awareness among 75 students in Menya on how to collect basic nutrition information and ways  of combating obesity among children.     

The Mondelez  International Foundation has been ramping up its efforts to empower families and communities to lead healthier lives. The foundation is working with  consumers, companies, governments and leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to promote active and healthy lifestyles.