Health Minister shares a story about him facing difficulty in eating eggplants when he was young

Minister for Health, Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete says every child faces challenges in eating certain greens and just like them, he also faced difficulty in eating eggplants when he was very young.

While speaking at the launch of the Pacific Kids Food Revolution at Nehru Primary School, Dr. Waqainabete told the students that COVID-19 has showed us that we need to have a healthy population so that when diseases hit us from any corner of the world, we will be able to withstand it.

He says this is why parents play a very critical role in children’s knowledge of health and nutrition.

Doctor Waqainabete says this Pacific Kids Food Revolution will teach our children how to make local fruits, vegetables and food as a collective to enable us to enjoy them.

He says they are also looking at rolling out the health promoting school concept in all the 1,100 primary and secondary schools in Fiji.

Doctor Waqainabete says the program looks into things such as diet and exercise, healthy food groups, school canteen guidelines and the amount of sugar in the drinks in schools.

The Minsiter says they are working with the Education Ministry, UNICEF and other development partners to promote this program which is currently being practiced in 300 schools.

He says they are also looking at health promotion which deals with marketing of unhealthy foods.

UNICEF Pacific Representative, Sheldon Yett says children are looked upon to start healthy living habits now so that they grow up strong and contribute to the health of their country.

Yett says this is very important at this time as the world is fighting against COVID-19.

He has thanked the Ministry of Health and Education for the work they are doing in schools.

Minister for Education, Rosy Akbar says children should practice healthy living from home and teachers need to reinforce it when children come to schools.

Food Warriors of the Pacific Kids Food Revolution also demonstrated to the students and invited guests on how to make fruit salad during the event.