The training covered 43 schools of three districts of Manica Province

180 teachers will give nutrition education lessons in primary schools in Manica Province, Central Mozambique, after being trained by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Mozambican Ministry of Education and Human Development (MEDH). Using the FAO manual "Let's eat nutritious food", the course aimed to enhance the teachers' knowledge of nutrition, but also chronic undernutrition, food security and the appropriate methodology for nutrition education in primary schools.

According to Ruth Butao Ayoade, an FAO consultant on food security and nutrition, with nutrition lessons at school, "the children will get to know, from an early age, how to eat and thus live healthily". For her, "this is an effective strategy to prevent malnutrition both in the short and in the long run, protecting human capital and contributing to the economic development of the country". At the end of the training, the representative of the Provincial Direction of Education of Manica, Pedro Camacho, said that "this can become a model for the implementation of the nutrition education activities within the National School Feeding Programme (PRONAE), recently approved by the Government of Mozambique".

The five-day course, which was focused on the healthy eating habits of school children, was conducted by a team of nutritionists, agriculture technicians and teacher trainers from both the Chibata Institute for Teacher Training and the Mozambican association "Development Aid from People to People" (ADPP) in Manica. For Sandra Armindo, a teacher at Chigodole Primary School, Manica District, the training was "another tool to enhance education content on nutrition, and also to train teachers on how to transmit the knowledge on good feeding habits and practices".

Within the component on Home Gardens and Nutrition Education of the sub-programme MDG1c of FAO, the training covered 43 schools of the three districts where this component is being implemented: Manica, Gondola and Sussundenga. Among other objectives, this component aims to enhance basic knowledge on nutrition, hygiene and health of women and children.