Eshraqa sponsors Oman’s First National Nutrition Survey

Muscat: The Oman National Nutrition Survey (ONNS) – the Sultanate’s first ever-nutritional survey – has completed its data collection phase that began almost a year ago.
The project, which is sponsored by Eshraqa, Khimji Ramdas Social Development Arm, completed the fieldwork and training, collected the biological samples and obtained the data pertaining to demographics, social and family history and diet. The next step will involve announcing the results that include in-depth analysis of all the information that has been collected and deliberations on appropriate measures to be implemented at conferences and programmes that are planned for the future.
Eshraqa, Khimji Ramdas Social Development Arm supported the Oman National Nutritional Survey as part of its commitment towards the government’s objectives for improving Oman’s health sector. The initiative comes under one of Eshraqa’s three key foundation pillars – Health – the other two being education and community well-being. Eshraqa’s role in the project was as a platinum sponsor to contribute valuable resources towards its goals of assessing and analysing nutritional levels among the Omani population. “We uphold a very strong commitment towards supporting developmental drives and initiatives that focus on community and social welfare. In fact, it is for this purpose that we have created an independent run of operations under Eshraqa, wherein the primary goal is to provide the local community and underserved sectors with the tools for development,” said Nailesh Khimji, director of Khimji Ramdas.
With Eshraqa’s consistent support the survey has been able to proceed as scheduled, with major components successfully executed.
Thanking Khimji Ramdas for its support and highlighting the significance of the survey, Dr Samia Ghannami, director of the Nutrition Department at the Ministry of Health, said, “We would like to thank Khimji Ramdas for their committed support towards this massive project. They have provided invaluable assistance, which has helped us accomplish the goals of the survey. The results will be further analysed and catalogued before appropriate resolutions are determined and implemented.”
The ONNS was officially launched in early December 2016 beginning with the training of 66 health ministry employees from 11 governorates in Oman. It specifically seeks to assess nutritional levels of identified sub-groups of the Omani population, estimate the intake frequency of nutrient-dense foods, assess obesity risk factors, evaluate food patterns in infants and young children, evaluate programmes for fortifying wheat flour and edible oil in Oman, among other determining parameters under the survey.