Salbix Foods supports Children’s Hospital
The nutrition rehabilitation centre of the Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital in Accra has received assorted food items to support malnourished patients.
The centre, which caters for malnourished children, received the items from Salbix Foods, an agro-processing company that produces baby foods and breakfast cereals.
The company presented 78 pieces of 1,200 kilogramme packs of its products to the centre.
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Objective
Before the presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of Salbix, Mrs Linda Onyah Maka, said the gesture was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility to give back to society.
“The product is a nutritional supplement that is essential for the nutrition of children and I know it will go a long way to support this nutritional rehabilitation centre,” she said.
Mrs Maka, who is a social worker and a teacher, added: “My passion has always been towards the wellbeing of children and the family as a whole and this is what drove me into starting the nutritious Salbix cerealmix.
“I believe that when children take nutritious meals it makes them grow well and they become intelligent,”, she explained.
She appealed to benevolent individuals, corporate organisations and the government to support the nutrition rehabilitation centre, saying, “your money or the nutritious grains you give may go a long way to save the life of a child.”
She advised mothers to feed their children with whole grains such as soybean, oats and wheat and reduce the content of carbohydrates and fatty foods to improve the health of their children.
Challenges
The Senior Nutrition Officer at the centre, Ms Bernice Okine, who received the items, said in line with the mandate of the centre, it had a kitchen that provided food for malnourished patients in addition to the medication such children received.
The meals provided, she said, served as a supplement to help mothers who were needy but had severe acute malnourished and moderate acute malnourished children.
“Severe acute malnourished patients are fed every Friday, while moderate acute malnourished are fed daily with a three-square meal at the centre,” Ms Okine said.
The senior nutrition officer said for the past three years the hospital had been financing the purchase of the therapeutic feed, which cost GH¢200 per box, while the nutritious meals were prepared in-house.
“Currently, we have 39 cases at the hospital and we use three boxes daily,” Ms Okine added.