School Health & Nutrition to be expanded to 10 upazilas

School Health and Nutrition (SHN) Programme was launched at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city yesterday. Sitting from left are Gene V George, Edward Olney, Dr Mahbubur Rahman, Dr Jeorge Komba Kono and Dr Nizam Uddin Ahmed. PHOTO: STAR

This was disclosed at a meeting organised by Save the Children USA in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services and Directorate General of Primary Education at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre in the city yesterday.

The SHN programme will be expanded with the support of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as the programme at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria proved immensely successful, the speakers said.

Core elements of the programme are health and nutrition services, water and sanitation, promotion of healthy behaviours and school health related policies.

A baseline survey conducted in the primary schools of Brahmanbaria district in 2004 revealed that a total of 56 percent of the students suffered from some degree of anaemia, 56 percent were infected with intestinal worms and almost a quarter of the students were stunted.

The study also revealed that 63 percent of children defecated in the open field and only 8 percent had access to a sanitary latrine at home.

Knowledge on using a latrine was found to be quite high, but practice was considerably low, it showed.

Through a comprehensive SHN programme, a total of 22, 318 students of 64 primary schools in six unions of Nasirnagar received deworming medicine twice a year, annual vision screening service, class room based weekly iron supplementation, access to first aid kits and ailments at schools, the speakers said.

The speakers also said SHN programme is a prevention activity with a holistic approach and the schools have an important role to play for the development of children.

Country Director of Save the Children USA Edward Olney chaired the meeting while Director of Primary Health Care Dr Mahbubur Rahman, Mission Director of USAID Gene V George, Medical Officer of WHO, Bangladesh Dr Jeorge Komba Kono and Managing Director of GSK Limited, Bangladesh M Azizul Huq were present as special guests.

Director, Health, Population and Nutrition (HPN) of Save the Children USA Dr Nizam Uddin Ahmed stressed the need for raising public awareness and community mobilisation.

Programme Manager of SHN Dr Rasheduzzaman Shah delivered the welcome speech and the students under the programme staged a drama portraying the success of the programme.