By Alexandre Amadou M. Gassama, Advocacy, Campaign & Communication Lead, World Vision
Introduction
Twenty children aged between 12 and 18 spoke candidly about the fight against malnutrition and the importance of healthy meals at the country’s first children’s Nutrition Dialogue workshop.
In the Central African Republic (CAR), malnutrition remains a pressing concern, with a significant portion of the population, especially children, facing food insecurity and inadequate access to nutritious meals.
The Workshop
The workshop, hosted by World Vision CAR in Bangui, allowed children to share their diverse perspectives, ideas, and potential actions to improve nutrition in their community. Contributions to the discussion were kept confidential to ensure everyone could speak their mind freely.
Holding Parents to Account
Children and young people shared powerful reflections and calls to action:
- One girl, Maeva, stressed the crucial role of parents in ensuring schools provide nutritious meals:
« Parents play a crucial role in ensuring that schools provide us with nutritious meals. Their involvement is key to supporting our wellbeing and growth. »
- Another participant, Arielle, echoed this sentiment and urged parents and stakeholders to take responsibility for promoting school feeding programmes, which are essential in the fight against malnutrition.
Children Propose a Way Forward
Building on their reflections, the children suggested actionable steps to foster greater parental involvement and guarantee access to healthy meals at school:
- Advocacy through Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs)
- Parents should actively participate in PTAs to advocate for and oversee the quality of meals provided at school.
- Creating Nutritional Awareness Programs for Parents
- Maeva and Arielle highlighted the importance of educating parents about the significance of nutrition in a child’s development.
- They proposed organising workshops or awareness programmes to inform parents about the nutritional requirements of growing children and the role of healthy meals in their overall well-being.
- Involving Parents in Meal Planning and Oversight
- Parents should have a say in the selection of food vendors or suppliers for school meals.
- Establishing a transparent process to monitor the quality and nutritional value of meals served at school was also recommended.
Looking Ahead
This Nutrition Dialogue is just one of over 100 dialogues registered to take place worldwide in the coming months.
The goal is to summarise all the opinions and suggestions of children and adults and share them with decision-makers attending or involved with the Nutrition 4 Growth Summit in Paris next year.
Learn More
To learn more about the Nutrition Dialogues, visit nutritiondialogues.org.
Note: Not the children’s real names.
