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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
LEADING nutrition, health and wellness company, Nestlé Zimbabwe, has reaffirmed its sponsorship package for the National Association of Primary Heads (Naph) that has seen the company injecting more than $500,000 since 2012.The main objective of the sponsorship deal, according to Nestlé Zimbabwe Corporate Communications and Public Affairs manager Farai Munetsi, is to promote awareness on nutrition and physical activity among primary school children.

The sponsorship starts at district level where participants in all the 10 provincial centres in Zimbabwe meet and they advance to the national level when all the 10 provinces meet.

“As a leader in nutrition, health and wellness, Nestlé has been involved with Naph because they both have a common ambition of improving the quality of life for the children of Zimbabwe through awareness on nutrition and physical activity,” said the former Dynamos chairman.

Munetsi said their annual programme, under the theme Healthy Kids, starts in January through the train the trainer workshops that are conducted by Physical Education lecturers from various teachers’ colleges in the country.

The workshops define the theme of the year and standardisation of gymnastics, ball games and dance activities. The workshop also sets the tone for how nutrition awareness messages will be fused into the physical activities.

“The integration of nutrition and physical education is designed to teach children to live a healthy lifestyle to enable them to reduce or eliminate any incidences of non-communicable diseases in the future

After the workshop, it is now the role of the trained teachers to go and train other teachers in their districts.  In 2014, the trainers trained 1,405 teachers and the target this year is to train a further 1,600 teachers,” said Munetsi.

This year’s training programme kicked off last week with workshops in Gwanda and Bulawayo.

Meanwhile, newly appointed Naph spokesperson Elton Sinyosi has hailed the Nestle sponsorship and said it promotes the development of a healthy sporting child.