Olam, NGO give healthcare support to rural Africans

One of the leading global integrated supply chain managers and processor of agricultural products, Olam International is partnered some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to give vital information and healthcare support to rural Africans.

The partnership, according to a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet is to support the year's United Nations' World AIDS Day for December 1, 2012.

The NGOs in the partnership include GIZ, Engender Health and Action Health incorporation.

In Nigeria, the partnership targets students in the fight against HIV and AIDS in supporting the national effort.

A community focused campaign was also created to prevent new HIV infections among young people by mobilising them as community change agents for development, of which Osun State is one of the states that has witnessed the campaign.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the campaign is to serve as a challenge for the youths for the year's World AIDS Day them, 'Getting to Zero.'

Commenting on the partnership, Ms. Temitope Ijiwole of Action Health Incorporated said the initiative contributed to the national response of reducing new HIV infections to zero.

Also speaking, Olam Head, East and Southern Africa Region, MD Ramesh revealed that the company depends on 3.4 million small scale farmers across Africa and that the initiative as part of their corporate social responsibility in the sensitive agricultural sector of the continent with a belief of supporting healthcare programmes.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

We can’t live without food – Akunyili

Prof. Akunyili, Former Information Communication Minister

Former Minister of Information and Communications who doubles as a renowned Pharmacist, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has stressed the importance of food, saying man can not live without, but can do without drugs, thus she called for adoption of nutritional supplements, describing them as crucial to healthcare management.

Akunyili made this position know at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, where she declared open the National Health Conference on Nutrition Therapy organised by a United States-based company.

“Food is actually more important than drug because we can live without drugs but we cannot live without food. This must be why all over the world, it is always Food and Drug Regulatory Agency and not Drug and Food Regulatory Agency,” she said.

She noted that as a pharmacist, she is aware that nutrition plays a key role in people’s health status, stressing “This is because many of the nutrients we need for healthy living can be found in fruits, seeds, roots, vegetables, nuts and unprocessed natural food.”

She disclosed that it was this that made her to give “equal opportunity to various therapies – including food supplements” during her days as Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) from 2001 to 2008.

“We actually paid as much attention to food in NAFDAC as we did to drugs, but for some reason, the public was more interested in drugs. However, I always insisted that every food and drug must meet stipulated standards so that our people do not end up taking poison in the name of food and drugs,” Akunyili stated.

The conference which had as theme “Nutrition: Potency & Possibilities In Health Care Delivery” was jointly organised by Hallelujah Acres USA and Hallelujah Acres Nigeria. It was graced by delegates from across Nigeria, with the President and Chief Education Officer of Hallelujah Acres, Paul Malkmus, and his wife Ann, as special guests.

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology