Why Every African Family Needs Horlicks

Good nutrition they say is an essential building block of
human wellbeing. Dealing with global nutrition problems is paramount for
achieving the United Nation’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While the
world is currently not on course to meet the global nutrition targets set by
the World Health Assembly, many countries and other stakeholders are making
good progress.

Solving malnutrition is complex and requires great efforts
by all stakeholders. Of particular concern is the lack of accurate, timely
information, as well as wide-reaching platforms to educate people across the
continent.  Such a platform is
particularly relevant at this time when Africa is experiencing a rapid
transformation in information technology. Yes it is!

In Line with this, Horlicks, premium nutritional beverage
drink from the stables of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc (GSK), in
collaboration with the Federation of Africa Nutrition Societies (FANUS), last
year, launched a website designed to provide nutrition and health information
to Nigerians and Africans at large.

This uniquely designed website www.africanfamilynutrition.com
has since its hosting, provided tangible information on various aspects of
human wellness and lifestyle including nutrition, health, physical fitness and
pregnancy.

During the official launch of the website, Global Expert
Marketing Director, Family Nutrition Category, GSK, Mrs. Jaya Mathai, said the
African family nutrition website is a complete nutritional care guide for all
African families. “An important step to overcoming under nutrition is having
access to credible information on nutrition. We understand the importance of
proper nutrition and the challenges involved in getting authoritative
information on subjects related to nutrition and after  checking out the available information
accessible to our people, we felt that this was an area that needed
strengthening.”

“Hence, GSK in partnership with the Federation of Africa
Nutrition Societies [FANUS] decided to develop a website;
www.africanfamilynutrition.com. The aim of this website is to provide a wide
range of information on various aspects of health and nutrition, developed by
local nutrition experts so that it is relevant to Nigerian families and Africa
as a whole. FANUS and GSK hope that people of Nigeria will be better equipped
to address the problem of under nutrition through this initiative. The website
is simply designed as an African mother’s first stop for information on
nutrition,” Mathai said.

The website is being operated and updated with adequate
research and resources. Experts from the Federation of Africa Nutrition Societies
are the major contributors for the website. The website provides contents for
all Africans with detailed information on good nutrition, general wellbeing and
other related issues.

According to Mathai, “the website has credible information
on all aspects of health and nutrition that serves as a very useful guide for
Nigerian families. For example, there are sections with really useful
information on health and nutrition needs of children of all ages as well as
for women and men. There is a wealth of information for pregnant women. Most
mothers find the section on parenting to be really valuable. There is
information on weight management and fitness, including a range of calculators
to help plan nutritional requirements. Through this initiative, FANUS and GSK
hope to be able to provide access to credible information on nutrition to help
reduce the problem of malnutrition. The website therefore contains
comprehensive articles on nutritional health benefits which we believe will
help improve the lives and wellbeing of our consumers.”

A recent visit to the website however shows that visitors
can now share articles on the website via social media channels like Facebook
and Twitter as well as rate information. Navigation buttons and bars are
user-friendly and easy to get acquitted with. The language used on the website
is conversational and searching for information on the site is very easy.
Simple details are required for sign up.

Efforts to make information on the site available to a
larger population, and overcome the challenge of low internet penetration which
is still a difficulty in Africa, has made GSK to make the information on the
website accessible to non internet users through the application of a toll free
voice portal. The toll free voice portal was developed for people who do not
have ready access to the internet. All they need to do is simply give the
number a missed call and hang up, and an operator will call back immediately at
no cost to the caller. This service is totally and completely FREE. With the
toll free number +919555120000; consumers can access information on the
different sections of the website.

The website is made up of various sections and each section
contains rich information and research from nutritional and health professionals.
Some of the sections include: children’s nutrition, parenting, women’s health,
pregnancy, men’s health, nutrition, fitness, relationship and many more.

Knowing fully well that good nutrition is a right, nutrition
security entails many rights, especially the right to adequate food and to the
highest attainable standard of health. According to nutritionists, more
attention needs to be paid to the issue of nutritional coverage data. This has
been a key area that FANUS, one of the major contributors to
www.africanfamilynutrition.com has been focusing on.

Back in May, at Arusha, Tanzania, when nutritionists across
the continent met for a 5-day FANUS 2015 conference themed “Nutrition in Africa
at Crossroads”, Bjorn Ljungqvist, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the 3rd
FANUS conference raised the challenge of the multi-sectoral approach, and the
opportunity “to act on a global scale, to be part of setting new directions”.

This initiative is in line with GSK’s global mission to
improve the quality of human life by enabling people do more, feel better and
live longer and they believe supporting it is a way of demonstrating this. GSK
has also been in existence in Nigeria for over 40 years and they are deeply
committed to the wellbeing of Nigerians.

Horlicks is one of the nutrition brands from GSK, and the
company believes that the brand sits in a good position to support and champion
this initiative. Horlicks is a quality health drink from GSK and it provides 23
vital nutrients specially designed to meet the nutritional needs of Nigerian
children. This initiative is wholly sponsored by Horlicks in public interest.