Youth Advocacy Network sends open letter to Minister of Education & Youth Fayval Williams - file photo
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Shanielle Allen, Policy & Advocacy Coordinator, Youth Advocacy Network
Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network has penned an Open Letter to Education Minister Fayval Williams to convey the urgent need to implement the comprehensive School Nutrition Policy.
The group is seeking to amass as many signatures to the document as possible to call the minister to account.
Shanielle Allen, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for the Youth Advocacy Network revealed Monday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica that so far, 200 people have signed in support of the nutrition policy.
Noting that the policy document (Green Paper) has been in the public domain for two years, Allen said nothing has been heard since about the implementation of the policy, "so we are saying, where is the policy, also given the start of a new school year."
Declaring that "the statistics are alarming," she elaborated: "Thirty thousand Jamaican children are hpertensive,; obesity rates has doubled over the past decade in our boys and increased by 50 per cent in our girls."
Ms Allen is hoping that this latest effort from the Advocacy Network will reinforce the importance of the policy to protect children from non-communicable diseases.
It was important "to understand that this urgent and this is something that we're not just calling for as advocacy groups and CSOs, but this is what the Jamaican children want," she stressed.
Heart Foundation concerned
The Heart Foundation of Jamaica which has provided technical support to the Ministries of Health and Education in developing the National School Nutrition Policy is also calling for its implementation.
Rosanna Pike, Advocacy Officer with the Heart Foundation, taking account of the emerging statistics, declared warned that the future of Jamaica does not look healthy.
Drawing on the last Global School-based Health Survey, which "showed that within a seven-year gap from 2010 to 2017, the overwight and obesity weight have increased by 68 per cent," including "even children under five," as reflected in UNICEF's 2021 Country Report, she asked "What more do we need?"
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