HCM CITY — The Việt Nam Red Cross Society yesterday signed a three-year agreement with FrieslandCampina Việt Nam for a communication project on nutrition education and physical strength development in children.

This year the project will focus on a survey of the health and nutrition of 50,000 children aged from three to 11 at 100 schools in Hà Nội, Hải Phòng and the provinces of Hải Dương, Nam Định, and Thái Bình.

It will include campaigns on communications and training, guidance on health, nutrition and physical development for teachers, students and their parents and members of the Red Cross.

Free milk will be provided to students at the schools adopted by the project.

At the signing ceremony, Nguyễn Thị Xuân Thu, chairwoman of the Việt Nam Red Cross Society, said the project would be useful to children and also contribute to achieving important targets in the Government’s programme entitled School Milk-For Việt Nam’s Stature which aims to improving the nutrition and height for  kindergarten and primary students by 2020.

By 2030 the rate of child malnutrition in Việt Nam would be reduced to below the global and regional average, she said.

The country would also limit the increase in obesity and overweight among kindergarten and school children, she said.

Arnoud van den Berg, managing director of FrieslandCampina Việt Nam, said children need sufficient nutrition and two glasses of milk every day along with proper exercise for physical and brain development.

Height development for Vietnamese should start with proper nutrition and exercise for children at an early age, he added.

The agreement is a part of the Campaign called Drinking Milk- Exercising-Healthy initiated by FrieslandCampina based on the concept of daily diet, nutrition and exercise affecting a child greatly.

According a survey on nutrition in Southeast Asia conducted by the Ministry of Health’s National Institute of Nutrition, more than 50 per cent of children under 12 lack calcium and vitamins A, B1 and C and iron in their daily meals and drinks.

A shortage of vitamin D persists though the country gets a lot of sunshine.

While rural areas faced malnutrition and shortage of micronutrients, obesity and overweight are seeing an upward trend in urban areas.

School age is the time for children to rapidly develop their physical strength, brain gender as well as personality.

Since 2012 FrieslandCampina Việt Nam has worked with the Red Cross to carry out charity activities such as donating cows and giving gifts to poor people and victims of Agent Orange. — VNS