The former intern of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Françoise Mbang Obame, also a public health executive engineer at the National Program for the Fight against Noncommunicable Diseases, has, at the end of an investigation carried out in the various schools in Gabon, produced a food guidance sheet to raise awareness among populations about junk food, which has gradually become a public health problem in the country.
“This food sheet was developed with the collaboration of food specialists in Gabon and we can hope that it will be well used by learners, students and traders because let’s not forget that it is the traders who provide our children with what they need to eat,” said Ms. Mbang Obame, after presenting this Thursday, February 22, 2024, her study which concerned students aged 8 to 19.
The results of this survey reveal that 78% of these adolescents like to eat salty, sweet and fatty foods. Eating behaviors at the origin of obesity and several non-communicable diseases.
If a good number of children are more or less aware that their eating habits are not healthy, the fact remains that 64% do not know how to adopt good food hygiene. A lack of knowledge resulting from a lack of awareness.
More than 500,000 dietary guidance sheets have been printed for this purpose to distribute to all schools in Gabon. An approach that should enable learners and student parents to improve their eating behaviors.
“We at the Ministry of Education will do our utmost to implement a strategy so that these sheets can reach each student and each parent so that our children’s eating behaviors improve,” declared upon receiving the forms, Georges Ebiaghe Angoue, director of pre-primary education at the Ministry of National Education.
The sheet recommends a healthy, balanced and varied diet divided into six (06) groups, namely: Fruits (group 1), vegetables (group 2), dairy products (group 3), Tubers and Cereals (group 4) , meat products, fish, eggs and legumes (group 5), sweet, fatty and salty products (group 6).
There are around 500 former JICA Gabonese trainees, some of whom put into practice the skills they received in Japan.
Sydney IVEMBI
2024-02-22 15:46:17
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