June declared Nutrition Month [May 30 2011]

The month of June has been declared as the nutrition month of the year by the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka. The theme of this nutrition month is “Nutrition for all – play your role”. A special seminar in this connection was held recently at the Health Education Office in Colombo.

The National Health Policy has been launched to cover the decade from 2008 to 2018. The main objective of this programme is to raise the nutrition level of the people and to obtain their active participation in the development programme.

The National Nutrition Council was established in January under the guidance of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka is the only country in the world which has such a Council and International organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN have admired Sri Lanka for setting up the National Nutrition Council. Steps have also been taken to establish a National Nutrition Secretariat Office to implement all policies relating to nutrition. Several projects will be implemented by the National Nutrition Council in respect of the Nutrition Month. This includes minimizing of the births of under weight children, enlightening the masses on nutritional problems and eradicating malnutrition.