LAHORE: Friesland Campina Engro Pakistan Ltd (FCEPL) in collaboration with University of Education Punjab launched a ‘School Milk Programme’ (SMP) in a magnificent ceremony held at a local hotel today in Lahore.
Minister of Higher Education Punjab, Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz was the chief guest for the occasion. The School Milk Programme ceremony was also graced by Minister for Livestock, Sardar Hasnain Bahadar Dreshak.
Managing Director Friesland Campina Ali Ahmed Khan in his message on the successful launch of School Milk Programme said, “It is a great pleasure to highlight that we at FCEPL are celebrating 2021 as 150th year of our creation taking ahead our steadfast legacy of ensuring better nourishment. We will continue this magnanimous journey in line with our strong commitment and vision of providing a better livelihood for our farmers and serving the customers with excellence across the board.
Ali Ahmed added that “Friesland Campina, being cooperative of Dairy Farmers has unique purpose of “nourishing by nature” and this purpose has three predominant elements including a better nutrition, an adequate living standard good for farmers and lastly for now and generations to come.”
“Nutrition is at the core of our purpose, henceforth, we are taking several initiatives in nutrition landscape with efficiency and refinement in the technological system,” Ali Ahmed said further.
It is our primary responsibility to bring into limelight the dire consequences of raw milk consumption among children and for this we have undertaken many projects for improving farmers livelihoods through productivity enhancement and we are focusing even more in future on our dairy development initiatives. Similarly, School Milk Programme is also one of our priority areas in countries like Pakistan.
While milk consumption in schools has multitude of benefits for the school children, it has other leg of benefits including farmers selling more, industry growth, employment generation to a higher level.
Keeping this in mind, we are partnering with UE to pilot the programme for 6 months to start with by increasing learning in terms of nutrition improvement and school performance, will be shared with the government and relevant stakeholders for potential large scale roll out.”
The SMP event was graced by the patrons of Pakistan’s various educational institutions, all of whom are ardent advocates of the health and dietary needs of the country’s substantial student population.
Dr Muhammad Nasir, G M Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, FCEPL said, “We are partnering with the government and other stakeholders to launch this much needed initiative of the School Milk Programme, which will help to improve the nutritional status and health of kids and is also expected to improve their educational performance indicators.”
Dr Nasir said further that the launch of the SMP is scheduled to be the first of many other empowering and quality-of-life enhancing entities aimed at the health and nutritional needs of every Pakistani in line with the vision of Prime Minister, Imran Khan. With the slogan of “Nourishing the future” the children of the nation can expect many other similarly empowering initiatives scheduled along the year.
Vice Chancellor University of Education Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said that we have started this useful programme in the light of the vision of honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan who is very much concern about the problems of male nutrition in our children. He said the University of Education is spending an amount of Rs8.5 million on this project from its own sources to provide free milk to the students of 90 primary schools located in the remote areas of Attock and Sheikhupura.
Dr Pasha said the purpose of the said programme is to improve the nutrition level of our students to enhance their academic achievements. He told the participants that Friesland Engro Pak Ltd will support the research component of the School Milk Programme of University of Education in terms of milk supply chain, providing resources for research, communication and extending milk supply for the sample and contend groups for research completion while University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore and University of Education will jointly do research on impact of milk feeding on nutrition status of children and their school performance.
While addressing the gathering, the chief guest Raja Yasir Humayoun Sarfaraz said that male nutrition is a global issue and unfortunately Pakistan is one of the country included in the list where a large number of children are suffering from malnutrition, stunt and underweight. The Minister further said that University of Education always take innovative steps towards education under the able leadership of Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha.
While addressing the participants Provincial Minister Sardar Husnain Dreshak praised the University of Education for launching this useful project. The focal person of the programme Dr Intezar Hussain Butt briefed the participants in detail about this project. At the end of ceremony MoU was signed between University of Education, Lahore, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore and Friesland Engro Pak Ltd.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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