Ensuring Nutrition for Children in Malaysia

One Goal Malaysia seeks to tackle child malnutrition by leveraging the power of, and the passion for, sports in Malaysia such as football and badminton. Founded on the three pillars of proper and balanced nutrition, sports and a healthy lifestyle, One Goal Malaysia is an advocacy and awareness movement by World Vision Malaysia.

Eat right, play right, live right!

Eat Right to Play Right (ERTPR) is the flagship programme of One Goal Malaysia. This innovative programme seeks to address malnutrition by improving children’s understanding of healthy eating practices through sports.

First established in 2016 as a nutrition through football programme reaching underprivileged communities in Malaysia, ERTPR is now reaching urban poor communities through badminton. We want to empower children in Malaysia to eat right, play right and live right.

Why Sports?

Popular sports such as badminton and football have an enthusiastic and passionate following in Asia. Badminton and football are also community sports that children across all backgrounds grow up playing and loving. Using grassroots badminton and football, children get to participate in physical activities and lead healthier lifestyles. It is also an effective tool in engaging communities and delivering nutrition education in a fun and interactive manner.

Why Nutrition?

Malaysia faces the threat of a double burden: stunting and obesity. This is usually caused by children not eating the right food or enough of the right foods. In Malaysia, 20.7% of children under five suffer from stunting and 11.5% from wasting, while 12.7% of children aged five to 19 years are obese.¹

Badminton sessions are conducted by World Vision Malaysia staff, trained volunteer coaches and community coaches in identified communities. These sessions include health and nutrition learning activities and badminton training drills, enabling children aged seven to 12 years to learn about nutrition while applying the knowledge they gain in an active learning environment.

Sports-for-Nutrition Training for Children

Volunteer and community coaches are identified and trained to deliver badminton sessions that incorporate health and nutrition messages. A two-day training course is conducted by a team of people that have relevant technical knowledge and expertise in badminton, health and nutrition, as well as child protection.

Volunteer and Community Coach Empowerment

Parents and caregivers are trained in nutrition, with practical lessons on food preparation to build their knowledge and capacity in preparing nutritious meals for their children. To improve access to fresh food, training and support to start home gardens will also be provided. This will allow them to participate in community-based knowledge exchange while championing good nutrition practices for children in Malaysia!

Community Kitchen Sessions for Parents and Caregivers

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Dream Asia Awards 2018

The annual AFC Dream Asia Awards are given in recognition of individuals, corporations, NGOs and Member Associations who share the values of Dream Asia, AFC’s social responsibility initiative which promotes the culture of giving and emphasises the power of football in bringing about positive change in Asian society.

In 2018, Zurich Malaysia and World Vision Malaysia won the corporate category of the Award for the Eat Right to Play Right (ERTPR) programme.

ERTPR (football) that was co-executed by both organisations and grant-funded by Z Zurich Foundation ran from 2016 to 2022.

Watch the video to learn more:

Here’s what a community coach has to say about Eat Right to Play Right:

“As the coach and teacher, I am really proud with what we’ve done because all our lessons are showing positive results.” - Hendrew Brani, Volunteer Coach and Teacher at SK Kelana Jaya 1

And here’s what the children have to say about Eat Right to Play Right:

“It is really fun as I get to play football every week.”

“We get to learn about having a balanced diet and how to start eating healthily: less sugar, less fat and less salt.”

If you’d like to know more about One Goal Malaysia or the Eat Right to Play Right programme, please contact us at [email protected] or (603) 7800 0899.

Source:

¹ UNICEF, 2019

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