(VOVworld) – This year’s Micronutrition Day, themed ‘Micro-nutrients are necessary for children’s growth’, was launched in Hanoi on Monday.

At the launch ceremony of “2015 Micro-nutrition Day”

Micro-nutrients play a key role in human health, especially children’s physical growth and mental development.

Vietnam hopes to reduce the percentage of underweight children under-5 ahead of the schedule set in its Millennium Development Goal.

Giving children a dose of Vitamin A in Dong Da district, Hanoi (Photo: Duong Ngoc /VNA)

Truong Dinh Bac, Deputy Director of the Preventive Medicine Department of the Health Ministry, said at the ceremony: “to make the program effective, we should organize training courses on vitamin A supplements for children at the required aged on June 1^st and 2^nd. It’s necessary to boost the prevention of nutrition deficiency, improve public awareness about what constitutes proper meals, and ensure food hygiene and safety. Obesity and transformational disorders should continue to be controlled and the nutrition gap needs to be narrowed among children in all regions.”

In Vietnam, more than 5 million under-five children have been given 2 doses a year of high-potency vitamin A supplements and information on preventing a deficiency of iron and iodine has been disseminated.