In its effort to curb the high rate of anaemia in the country, the Ministry of Health and Education have formed a partnership to address the issue.
While launching the micronutrients programme on Friday at Suva Methodist Primary School, the Minister for Health, Dr Neil Sharma raised his concerns on the high incidences of children not having enough iron in their body which is a huge concern for us.
“ If you look at children close to 8 to 10 months at 6 months of age, do not have enough iron in their body.
“If we don’t have enough iron in our body because of the many reasons like- we do not eat right or whether there is worms in the tummy, at the end of the day, we cannot grow and develop as we should, ” Minister Sharma said.
Despite the high amount of vegetables like ‘rourou’ and ‘bele’ in the country, Dr Sharma’s challenged people to turn to local fruits and vegetables.
“One of every 5 men and one of every 3 women in this country do not have enough iron their bodies”.
Similar sentiments were echoed by the Minister for Education, Mr Filipe Bole of the lack of iron in children and how it would definitely affect our children.
“The Ministry of Education is very concerned about the rate of anaemia amongst our children as it reduces the rate of intellectuality and productivity,” Minister Bole added.
The two ministers challenged stakeholders and the wider community to change their lifestyle, to turn to local fruits and vegetables and to eat right, eat local and eat fresh.