Amway continues nutrition mission

The Ministry of Health signed the co-operation agreement with Amway, outlining the initiative to provide more nutritional supplements and information to families and schools

Over a million Nutrilite Little Bits boxes, a micronutrient powder supplement for malnutrition, enhanced with plant nutrients, developed by Amway for non-commercial purposes, will be delivered to children in the two provinces at no charge.

A heartrending 36.5 per cent of pregnant women ­suffer from nutritional anaemia, while the rate is 29.2 per cent among children under the age of five, pointing to a painful lack of awareness of proper nutritional practices as well as the frequent lack of means to follow a healthy diet.

According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), childhood malnutrition as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) has been a persistent problem in Vietnam and the country has been making little progress in catching up to the rest of the region. In 2017 childhood malnutrition ­affected 23.3 per cent of the population.

At present, very high ­incidences of childhood ­malnutrition (35 per cent and over) have been reported at 12 provinces concentrating on the three areas of the Central ­Highlands, North-Central ­Vietnam, and the northern mountainous provinces.

To tackle these challenges, the prime minister ratified the National Strategy on Nutrition for 2011-2020 with vision to 2030, setting Vietnam the ­target of reducing the rate of stunting in children under five years old to 26 per cent by 2015 and to 23 per cent by 2020.

Similarly, Amway Vietnam, a global leader in health and beauty, supports the government and particularly the MoH’s Department of ­Maternal and Child Health, to carry out their Nutrilite Power of 5 campaign, ­enabling children to grow healthily, both physically and intellectually, from the moment they are born.

Last week, Amway ­Vietnam signed the co-­operation agreement with the MoH on the nutritional ­improvement of children under five years old over the next year. Under the initiative, along with the 1,024,344 Nutrilite Little Bits boxes being ­delivered, numerous other ­activities will be organised in order to improve parent and teacher knowledge on ­nutrition.

Amway has been ­implementing the Nutrilite Power of 5 campaign in Vietnam since 2014. In the framework of the programme, 26,497 daily micronutrient boxes have been delivered to 6,773 children in Bac Giang, Lao Cai, and Thanh Hoa between 2015 and 2018 to help them escape from ­malnutrition and lower the risk of stunting.

Leo Boon Wang, managing director – Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, and ANZ of Amway, said, “We are proud to co-­ordinate with the Ministry of Health to ­continue the Nutrilite Power of 5 journey, so that more children can have access to Nutrilite Little Bits and more families can learn the importance of ­nutrition in the early years of childhood, thereby contributing to improving the physical stature of Vietnamese people.”

The boxes of Nutrilite ­Little Bits will be added ­directly to daily meals to ­provide essential micronutrients to children. Every gram of Little Bits powder contains 15 types of micronutrient to offset the vitamins and minerals missing from usual daily meals, improving nutrition and supporting the children’s growth.

Micronutrient supplements have been widely ­applied in numerous countries and are considered as one of the best solutions across the globe, enjoying wide support by international and regional health organisations as well as medical practitioners.

At the signing ceremony, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Viet Tien, Permanent Deputy Minister of Health, highlighted the assistance of Amway Vietnam in improving nutrition for Vietnamese people, especially children under five years of age. “I asked the Department of Maternal and Child Health to closely collaborate with Amway Vietnam to deploy the project on schedule, accomplish the goals set forth, and contributing to the fight against childhood malnutrition in Vietnam,” said Tien.

In addition to nutrition supplements, the programme will provide documents for training and communication on the care and nutrition for pregnant women and mothers with children under five. Experts from Amway and the MoH will organise courses to improve knowledge and practice of nutrition for health officials, pregnant women, mothers with children under five, and teachers of local kindergartens.

Leo Boon Wang - Managing director Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, ANZ, Amway As a global leader in nutrition, Amway always values the importance of healthcare for everyone globally. This is not only reflected in the activities to build a sustainable business foundation, but also in the social responsibility programmes in the markets where we operate. In Amway’s 60-year history, the company has always chosen children as the focus for its social responsibility programmes. Nutrilite Power of 5 is the largest-scale programme that Amway has deployed globally. Since 2014, the ­social programme specialising in nutrition for children under five years of age has been implemented in 15 countries, with 24 ­programmes as of the end of 2018, to raise global ­awareness of childhood malnutrition. Amway has developed the micronutrient powder supplement for malnutrition, enhanced with phyto nutrients called Nutrilite Little Bits, containing 15 ­essential vitamins and ­minerals for children between the ages of 6 months and five years old (the second golden stage of growth in height), to serve this ­programme for non-commercial purposes. Thousands of children have become healthier, more active, and more ­involved in activities at home and at school, according to annual reports. This is also the motivation for Amway to continue to ­expand the programme level through the co-operation with the Department of ­Maternal and Child Health of the MoH. In 2019-2020, in addition to raising awareness about nutrition in the ­community, we aim to provide 1.2 million Nutrilite Little Bits products for more than 80,000 children in the two provinces of Ha Giang and Nghe An. We are proud to co-­operate with the MoH to continue the Nutrilite Power of 5 journey, so that more children can have access to Nutrilite Little Bits and more families can ­understand the importance of nutrition in the early years of childhood, thereby contributing to improving the physical stature of Vietnamese people.