Some youth groups and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Tamale have embarked on a float through some principal streets of the town to create awareness on healthy foods and diets to ensure healthy living.

The groups, which included Activista Ghana, Young Urban Women, Girls Alliance Network, students of UDS, and the Ghana Red Cross Society, danced along the street amidst brass band music, carrying placards with educational messages and sharing brochures on key healthy foods and other dietary information to the public.

The event was organised by Songtaba, an NGO, as part of the Healthy Diets for Healthier Lives campaign (HD4HL) undertaken in partnership with the Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy and the University of Ghana, to sensitise the public on the impact of dietary choices.

Hajia Lamnatu Adam, the Executive Director of Songtaba, told journalists after the float that the event was to help address most of the non-communicable diseases resulting from poor quality fo
ods and dietary habits.

‘Generally, people go around selling all sorts of things and a lot of things come into the country and the inscriptions are in languages other than English. What policies are in place to measure the in-flow of some of these items?’ she asked.

She called for a policy bundle for healthier and more equitable consumer food environments that reduced the double burden of malnutrition, saying there was the need to reduce taxes on some of the healthy produce to enable a lot of people to consume them.

She said partners under the HD4HL campaign would also engage policymakers on food labelling policy to ensure standardisation.

Mr Mohammed Amidu Alhassan, the Institutional Development Manager at Songtaba, said the organisation would continue to work to mobilise other NGOs and young people in the region to push the message to the public.

Source: Ghana News Agency