12-Year-Old Coimbatore Girl is Spreading the Message of Good Health

26/03/21

Story of Change

17

Muthunithya Sri is a 12-year-old girl from Pollachi village in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. Through our project with Mondelēz International Foundation, ‘Shubh Aarambh 2.0’, we have been promoting children’s nutrition andhealthy lifestyle. Our aim is to inculcate right nutrition practices among children. Muthunithya is a part of this project and has emerged as a true leader, inspiring both children and adults around her on adopting a healthy lifestyle. She has become the Nutrition Leader of the children’s group in her area and has been spreading the message of the importance of leading a healthy living among her peers. She explains to them how eating junk food can harm their health.

Muthunithya, an extremely proactive child, has always been the first to participate in all her school activities. When the pandemic hit, and she could no longer attend school, she went on to help the children and families in her village. She took it upon herself to ensure that all the kitchen gardens in the village were well-maintained. She also shared information about the nutrition value of various vegetables that can be sourced from these gardens.

In the absence of work during the lockdown, many families could not manage to buy nutritious food. It was this point that they turned to kitchen gardens. When the lockdown was lifted, Muthunithya went from household to household and helped the elders with information on various low-cost nutritious food items that they should consume.

Muthunithya has become a torch-bearer of change in her community. Her aim to enable people to adopt healthy lifestyle. She can often be seen discouraging children from consuming a packet of chips, which she says is not just low on nutrition but also contributes to plastic waste in the village. At Bal Raksha Bharat, we are always proud to empower children like Muthunithya and work with them to drive grassroot-level change.

Please click on the DONATE button to make a small contribution to help Bal Raksha Bharat reach more such children.

Gaurav Sharma

Content Reviewer

“I am an editor and technical specialist at Bal Raksha Bharat, responsible for publishing articles and posts. My role involves evaluating content for consistency, and ensuring a positive user experience across the website."