Friesland Campina, Jr. NBA strengthen partnership

FRIESLANDCAMPINA and Jr. NBA are marking the first anniversary of their successful collaboration aimed at encouraging children in Southeast Asia to pursue an active and healthy lifestyle through play, sports, and proper nutrition. 

 

The partnership is one of the key elements of FrieslandCampina's Drink.Move.BeStrong campaign, which stemmed from the findings of the company’s Southeast Asian Nutrition Survey (SEANUTS) of 16,744 children under the age of 12 revealing widespread malnutrition, in particular insufficiencies in vitamin D, calcium, and other micronutrients.  The region's first integrated activation and advocacy campaign, Drink.Move.BeStrong aims to cultivate habits that can help build strong families—an advocacy shared by Jr. NBA—through a simple call to action to children and parents to drink one glass of milk and spend one hour of physical activity outdoors each day.

 

 

The collaboration between FrieslandCampina and Jr. NBA, which was launched in March 2014 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam, had successfully trained more than 8,000 children from 700 local schools and communities on the fundamentals of basketball and the importance of good nutrition in 2014. The program was launched in the Philippines in 2007 and continues to be supported by FrieslandCampina through its Alaska Milk brand.

 

In 2014, sports camps and basketball clinics conducted throughout the year trained boys and girls aged 5 to 14. More than 800 coaches in Southeast Asia have been trained as well. 

 

An NBA Experience allowed standout players from the 2014 Jr. NBA program, the Jr. NBA All-Stars, to go to China last October and attend the NBA Global Games Beijing 2014 presented by ZTE and featuring the Brooklyn Nets and the Sacramento Kings. In addition to visiting Beijing’s historical landmarks, Southeast Asian Jr. NBA All-Stars met with NBA player Yao Ming and joined exhibition basketball games during the trip.

 

Plans for this year include reaching more boys and girls and instilling in them the Jr. NBA core values of sportsmanship, teamwork, a positive attitude, and respect (S.T.A.R.). FrieslandCampina and Jr. NBA also hope to train more coaches, including those within schools to equip them with the ability to teach basketball skills. This is also in line with efforts to encourage an active lifestyle beyond the open clinics and to broaden the reach of the program even further.

 

The program will remain free across all stages.

 

According to FrieslandCampina Asia CEO Piet Hilarides, "Through our Drink.Move.Be.Strong campaign and Jr. NBA partnership, we have been able to bring the power of nutrition and sports to thousands of children and youths across the region and we are delighted to have launched and be expanding this very successful partnership. This collaboration is an important element of our pioneering Drink.Move.BeStrong campaign which has now reached more than 68 million people through multiple-channels across Southeast Asia.

 

"FrieslandCampina is committed to the growth and development of our future generation, and through our partnership with Jr. NBA we can make a positive impact on the well-being of children in the region by encouraging them to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle."