Twelve regions in the country will benefit from a nutrition's nationwide campaign that will start early next year. The programme is run by a Promasidor company under its Cowbell products.
The campaign is special and aims to promote nutrition education across the country through a TV show programme known as "HATUA - Jithamini" The twelve beneficiary regions are Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Mtwara, Iringa, Songea, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Arusha, Tabora, Lindi, Dodoma and Morogoro as well as primary-aged school children.
The objective of the programme is to highlight challenges associated with nutrition and education for primary school pupils. Marketing Manager for Promasidor, Bertin Mushi was pleased with the seriousness showed by local schools in Tanzania in participating in the edutainment programme.
"Milk is an important building block for good nutrition and we are very proud to be working with and have the support of schools in the country," he said. "Since Milk is one of the most nutritious foods, we want to do what we can to make sure Tanzanian kids grow up drinking it every day," said Mr Mushi.
As part of programme's celebration about 920 students from Uzuri Primary School in Dar es Salaam region enjoyed a morning of Cowbell tasting and they also participated in many different games.
They spent like two hours just enjoying milk and some student were so pleased with the initiatives taken by the company in giving them opportunities of enjoying milk with them.
A standard three student Ali Juma, said, "This is such a nice programme that we have enjoyed Milk and we like it as well, let it be a continuous programme."
He added that he drinks milk just once a week and sometime he fail to have it, but trough this programme he believe that, his friends will also benefit from the programme.
Meanwhile, head teacher of Uzuri Primary School, Sifun Wilson clarified that the initiatives made by the Promasidor company to supply Milk to his students is useful programme to his school.
He added that it is a good start in changing students' perception over the use of Milk as most of them believe that milk is for occasion use.
"Milk provides a unique combination of nutrients which are essential for a child's growth and development" he added.
He insisted that "The natural nutrition of milk gives children calcium for building bones and the nutrients they need for sustained energy, concentration and learning in the classroom and the children enjoyed to learn about the goodness of Cowbell milk".
He added that many students were so excited to see the programme roll in to the school and they are keen to see it again. campaign will reinforce messages on healthy eating and provide instruction for students and parents on nutrition education through developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, fun, participatory activities that involve social learning strategies.
This campaign will guide pupils towards good eating habits and will help them in improving dietary practices that affect children health, growth, and intellectual development. The campaign also aimed to educate pupils, parents, teachers and stakeholders about the importance of nutrition for primary school children.
According to diet expert from Madame Lilian Nshoma, the fat portion of the milk contains fat soluble vitamins. She added that solids other than fat include proteins, carbohydrates, water soluble vitamins, and minerals. These nutrients in milk help make it nature's most nearly perfect food.
Moreover, milk products contain high quality proteins. Proteins constitute about 18 per cent of the protein content of milk. "Casein, a protein found only in milk, contains all of the essential amino acids. It accounts for 82 per cent of the total proteins in milk and is used as a standard for evaluating protein of other foods," she added.
She also said that protein is needed to build and repair body tissues and to form antibodies which circulate in the blood and help fight infection. "Milk also contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium.
The calcium found in milk is readily absorbed by the body," she added. Calcium deficiency, along with other factors, may result in bone deterioration called osteoporosis.
The recommendations for calcium are 1,000 milligrammes for adults, 1,300 milligrammes per day for adolescents, 500- 800 milligrammes per day for young children and 1,200 milligrammes per day for adults over 51 years of age.
One serving of milk has about 250 milligrammes of calcium. It is difficult to obtain adequate calcium without milk and milk products in the diet.
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