Student health, food safety key issues for UAE on World Health Day

Dubai Cares is focusing on the importance of integrating school health and nutrition interventions in educational programmes.

Dubai Cares chief executive Tariq Al Gurg says promoting student health and nutrition is an integral part of its work in developing countries. Courtesy Dubai Cares

ABU DHABI // Food safety and student health will be among the issues being addressed for World Health Day on Tuesday.

“Education and health go hand-in-hand, as millions of school days are missed every year due to poor health and sickness, affecting children’s learning abilities and progress,” said Tariq Al Gurg, chief executive of Dubai Cares.

“Promoting student health and nutrition is an integral part of Dubai Cares’ work in developing countries. We cannot expect a child to realise the best of their academic potential, intellectual as well as physical, if they are sick or undernourished.

“School programmes are proven to enhance not only children’s health and nutrition, but also their learning potential, quality of education and life choices.”

Dubai Cares has launched programmes in Mali, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Palestine, among others, and is reaching more than 13 million in 38 countries.

Earlier this year, The National reported that Abu Dhabi Education Council planned to introduce health education in schools by the 2016-2017 academic year. The programme would be available for all ages in all public schools.

Adec was also working to regulate school canteens and ensure that healthy meals were provided.

The World Health Organisation was choosing to focus on food safety this year under the slogan “From Farm To Plate, Make Food Safe”.

Dr Alaa Al Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said unsafe foods were linked to more than 200 different diseases from cholera to cancer. “It is estimated that food-borne and water-borne diseases kill two million people every year, many of whom are children,” he said.

In the UAE, the Ministry of Health has made personal hygiene, food hygiene and healthy cooking methods high profile. Dr Hussein Al Rand, assistant undersecretary for healthcare centres and clinics, said food safety was a shared responsibility, from farmers and manufacturers to retailers and consumers.

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, said: “Unsafe food is a largely under-reported and often overlooked global problem.

“With the food supply chain stretching around the world, the need to strengthen food safety systems within and among countries is becoming more critical.”