By Ekellem Desmond
The fight against Malnutrition will soon be on the agenda of local councils. This is the objective the Jean Marie Nguele, former mayor of Nguelemedouka wants to achieve as a Nutrition Ambassador. He said this on Monday 22 February 2021 during a press briefing organized by the Scaling Up Nutrition SUN, movement at the Julius and Anne Oben Foundation.
While presenting his plan of action as Nutrition ambassador, he said his main goal is to make local councils include the fight against Malnutrition in their local development plan.
“As former Mayor, I understand the functioning of local councils and how they can play a major role in fighting against malnutrition“…This will help in the development of human capital as well as the development of Cameroonians
To achieve this the former mayor has decided to sensitize his peers. ” I intend to sensitize all councils on the need to make nutrition an important aspect of their programs”
Speaking also during the press briefing Professor Julius Oben, the co-founder of the J & A Oben Foundation collective efforts is the way out in making malnutrition a thing of the past.
“We need to make malnutrition a thing of the past in Cameroon. Sixty years after indeindependence, we should not be talking about malnutrition in Cameroon… We should all make malnutrition a thing of the past. We should not be talking about malnutrition in 2021”. The professor said.
Meanwhile alongside the press briefing the showcase of different Cameroonian dishes by some masters students from the University of Yaounde I.
The showcase was prelude of an event dubbed “Eat Cameroonian” that the J & A Oben Foundation will be organizing in the days ahead.
The purpose of the showcase was to sensitize people to eat traditional Cameroonian food, Fepa Kwesseu Armelle Gael, a researcher at Nutrition Incubator told The Voice. She added that this option taking by the Foundation stem from the fact most people prefer imported food which less nutritious compared to traditional Cameroonian dishes, whereas on the contrary it has been observed that the Cameroonian ancestry that consumed only the traditional dishes had longer lifespan than Cameroonians today.
The J&A Oben Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works actively with the Scale Up Nutrition movement to the fight against malnutrition in Cameroon.
