World Health Day: Dubai Cares highlights importance of integrating school health and nutrition interventions into educational programmes

DUBAI, 7th April, 2015 (WAM) -- On the occasion of World Health Day, which falls tomorrow, Dubai Cares has highlighted the importance of integrating school health and nutrition interventions into educational programmes. Underscoring the importance of student health in fostering a productive learning environment, Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Cares, said, "Education and health go hand in hand, as millions of school days are missed every year due to poor health and sickness, affecting children’s learning abilities and progress. At the same time, schools remain a central mechanism to teach lifelong lessons on basic hygiene, nutrition and the environment that help children lead a healthy and balanced life." "In addition to building and renovating schools and classrooms, providing early childhood education, as well as teacher training, curriculum development, literacy and numeracy, Dubai Cares also works on improving water, sanitation and hygiene in schools, providing school feeding and school-based de-worming activities. This approach ensures that schools are truly a safe and enabling learning environment for children, offering them health and nutrition facilities as well as resources needed to build up their intellectual and physical development," he added. As a global advocate of education, Dubai Cares says it understands the value, crucial role and potential that health and nutrition programmes offer to students and the greater communities. The organisation has launched school health and nutrition programmes in Mali, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Palestine, among others. Dubai Cares is currently reaching more than 13 million beneficiaries in 38 developing countries. – Emirates News Agency, WAM – http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395278952331.html