Nestle, Magic Bus join hands for adolescents' health

The partnership will enable Nestlé to reach out to 50,000 adolescents in a year, across metros.

Nestlé India has forged an agreement with Magic Bus India Foundation to focus on providing health and nutrition awareness to adolescents. This initiative is on the lines of the Nestlé Healthy Kids Global Programme.

The programme will reach out to 50,000 students aged between 10 - 17 years through government schools. The cities, where the programme will be running for a year, include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Magic Bus, which works on breaking the poverty cycle, one child at a time, will create a curriculum based on Sports for Development (S4D) approach, imparting knowledge about nutrition and a healthy, active lifestyle.

Etienne Benet, managing director, Nestlé India, says, "The partnership between Nestlé India and Magic Bus, will promote healthy eating habits amongst children in government schools, basis food availability and accessibility in cities."

Commenting on this, Sanjay Khajuria, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs, Nestlé India, says, "Through the Magic Bus partnership, Nestlé India will reach out to over 50,000 less privileged children in five metros within the span of a year."

Looking forward to this collaboration, Pratik Kumar, CEO, Magic Bus India Foundation adds, "Along with sensitising parents and teachers, this program will steer adolescent children in marginalised communities towards a life with better awareness and improved life skills, in the journey from childhood to livelihood."

For the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme, Magic Bus will create and customise its existing curriculum into three major buckets with the objective of raising awareness on 'Nutrition and Health', 'Getting Active' and 'Hygiene and Sanitation' amongst children in government schools. It will identify and train youth mentors who will be responsible for implementing the sessions in these schools and train them to deliver the curriculum on the ground.

The programme also intends to ensure that girls and boys get equal opportunities to play and learn. An awareness drive for gender sensitisation will form an integral part of the programme.