Dr Rekha appointed as National Project Co-ordinator

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 14: Dr Rekha Harish, Prof & Head of Department, GMC Jammu, has brought laurels and honour to the State by being appointed as National Project Co-ordinator for NCD Child Advocacy initiative: School Non Communic-able diseases awareness program.
This is a joint venture of Indian Academy of Paediatrics & American Academy of Paediatrics, which is being launched initially in Indian cities Jammu, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.  Dr AS Vasudev of Apollo Hospital Delhi is the Project Director.
In this regard, Dr Rekha Harish was invited to conduct a training of senior Pediatricians from these cities in Sir Gangaram Hospital Delhi on February 13. Participants included Prof Nirmala from Niloufer Hospital Hyderabad, Prof Shailja Mane from DY Patil Pune, Dr Latika Bhalla from Gangaram Delhi, Dr Sunita Manchanda from Max Gurgaon, Dr Arun Agarwal from Metro Hospital Delhi. Dr Anju Virmani was the co faculty.  She then conducted the pilot demo workshop with 50 adolescent children of Bal Bharti Public School New Delhi on the next day.
Her presentations and subsequent work stations served an eye opener for not only all the children but also the teachers .Students were excited to learn about reading the food labels and surprised to know how food industry can make false and misleading claims especially regarding the so called healthy drinks and products  .
This honour is subsequent to recognition of Dr Rekha Harish’s previous immense contribution as Chairperson/ Convenor of Indian Academy Task Force for prevention of childhood obesity for 4 years, when she had designed the workshop on Healthy Life style for school children, school administrators, Principals and parents, which was widely appreciated .She had also brought out a Module on Childhood Obesity which was released at The Asia Pacific Congress Hyderabad. She was also nominated as an Expert in the committee formed by the Union Ministry in the PIL filed by Uday Pai Foundation seeking ban on availability of junk food in and around schools in the Delhi High Court.