#ceidss

I have been continuously working on previous tasks such as creating charts and tables for the article that will be published soon.

I had to translate the website of MUN-SI project ,plus i have been creating content for CEIDSS’s Twitter. We presented the results of the intervention regarding snacks. Our graphs clearly showed how the consumption of fruit and vegetables have increased while the consumption of cookies dropped down.

In this post I am willing to sum up what I learned,how my previously established learning objectives became true and how I got accomplished on the subject of my internship.

In my first post I made known my  learning objectives for the 10 weeks which were :

Expand knowledge on health promotion, in particular     healthy eating and physical activity.

Be responsible for updating information in English     on various social platforms.

Analyse data and results

Work with different databases , epidemiological     statistics of obesity

After these 10 weeks I dare to state I found myself fulfilling these objectives moreover I gained knowledge on intercultural sensitivity as I have been in a foreign country. Sometimes my working language was not only English, I had to extend my skills and get the meaning of Portuguese words in order to complete a task.

I consider getting to know SPSS and being able to use as my biggest achievement and I am happy why I had an opportunity to contribute to an article by formulating tables that gives the base of it.

However now one of my eyes cries other one smiles as it is time to move back and study again and leave a super team within a great organisation behind. It has been my pleasure to be on board for these 2.5 months and learn about Portuguese people. I read them through statistics and tried to understand them through interactions on daily basis.

Rainy season arrived to Portugal and I have been unlucky enough to catch a flu in the first wave so I had limited working capacity during these weeks. However tasks have been given to carry out.

We have been working on our articles. One of them is about the Mediterranean diet and its advantages. It is based on a sample,collected from children ( 3-20 years old) who participated in our project that puts emphasis on Mediterranean diet.

Other one is about the AMEA teens project. It is a bit more complex as it takes into account several influencing factors, such as socioeconomic status how it does affect health status of adolescents. How level of physical activity contributes to the overall health status of the teens. Also it has developed tools to educate both children and parents. Therefore, to be able to write a good article we had to make research before writing the abstract.

Besides these, I have been responsible to create relevant content on CEIDSS’s twitter, add more contacts and keep social platforms up-to-date.

AMEA teens has got a new website, I have started translating the entire site’s raw Portuguese text to English that is also time-consuming. Briefly these activities kept me busy. Find out more at: http://ameaprogram.com/

Next weeks I will share more documents and pictures as it is going to be my last week.

Today (16th October) has been the World Food Day, therefore, CEIDSS has organized an event in Algés municipality. Through various games and quizzes health professionals,nutritionists tried to involve children as well as parents in order to combat obesity, prevalence of noncommunicable diseases. We were dispensing these cards among people who were passing by in the shopping mall. Cards do simplify what a healthy meal should include.

This programme has been taken place in a shopping mall called Alegro Alfragide,  playing area has been shared among CEIDSS, Portuguese Nutrition Association and a chef ( from Oeiras municipality) who was cooking healthy food patterns and offered small portions, titbits to people who have been present.

Portuguese Nutritionist Association conducted a survey to assess eating/dietary habits of people and clinical dietitians who represented the organisation enriched people acknowledgement in terms of food, nutrition, vitamins. To get an insight  click for further info :http://www.apn.org.pt/

CEIDSS has been represented by three nutritionists both in the morning and afternoon.

At one table kids could practice their tinting and drawing skills definitely topic of the drawings were linked to diet, health,fruits,vegetables. At the other table we had the same board game I introduced before when I wrote about VENCE healthy snack however this time quiz questions were designed for food overall not just regarding snack.  Winners got the an apple keyboard, reusable bag for shopping.

At our third table parents were tested, this was the saddest and most surprising table because parents were not able to answer simple questions so no wonder children need serious behavioral changes not just simple education on nutrition. Apparently it is hard when children have already developed and practice unhealthy beliefs due to their parents.

Group pic of our team:

 Other round of duties this week:

We finally uploaded the activities of MUN-SI to Open data base : http://openprogramdb.eu/

I have been put in charge of creating content for twitter of CEIDSS. Additionally I have been searching papers about benefits of Mediterranean Diet and AMEA teens program.

 Do not forget the bigger picture! The real aim of World Food Day to end hunger but all small steps count on nutrition, distribution, consumption.

http://www.wfp.org/WorldFoodDay

Part of our internship task was to create the individual report "Comparison of Portuguese National Dietary Guidelines with Latvian National Dietary Guidelines". In this report needed to include traditional food and explain why nation eat particular food items. It was quiet challenging but very interesting and get more better perspective about Portuguese cuisine. 

It was very challenging to to literature research because of language barrier. It was needed to translate all available information and data from Portuguese. 

the newest Portuguese food plate

Hence I am from Latvia, it was more easier to find relevant literature and data for Latvian National Dietary Guidelines. I analysed Latvians high prevalence of NCDs (why there is this problem and what could be done to improve and prevent the NCDs).

Latvian food pyramid

Both- Portuguese and Latvian cuisine has similarities- high in fat, salt etc. food.

Portuguese world famous and awarded cake 'Pasteis de Belém'

Regards to Latvian cuisine, our traditional Christmas dish is grey peas with smoked bacon.

Nevertheless, look up for differences in the recommendations, Portuguese don't have meat and dairy products in equal amounts as recommendation while Latvian Food pyramid combines meat and dairy products together.

It was interesting and motivating in my professional development to analyse different region, country and culture food habits, cuisine and guidelines.

It was a great opportunity to intern at the "Mun-Si" programme in Portugal. I experience large scale of emotions, new perspective on Global Nutrition and Health, gained more knowledge and how to apply that in the real field work- from theoretical knowledge into practice etc. 

Nevertheless, it was a hard work on "Beach Activities", including all preparation and therefore, lack of time we could not cover all objectives as planned in the beginning. As for example, we could not practice on data management- how to work with databases in SPSS software platform due to lack of time as mentioned previously.

A short description about me 

Hi, my name is Lina and I am a Bachelor degree student in Global Nutrition and Health doing specialization Public Health Nutrition & Food Policy at Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen Denmark. I am the 4th semester student and it is my first Internship in Portugal during summer months July and August. I am looking forward to start my Internship!

How we found the place :)

Me and my friend Baiba decided to do Internship together and we started looking for a place together. We were not sure to which country we would like to go but we knew we would like to stay in Europe. We found the variety of the choices on Internet in regards to Internship, we contacted many companies in Spain, Portugal, Denmark and also Lithuania where I was born.

However, our teacher Charlotte Dahl provided some Internship ideas for 2014  with the contacts from different countries including Portugal. We discussed that Portugal might be a great opportunity in regards to our Internship and we should try to write an email to MUNSI. As I heard from friends Portugal is a great country for living especially in summer time where the weather is great, prices are low and the nature is beautiful! 

Likewise, our current Internship host replied to us after a couple of days, we arranged a meeting and then we met with her at our school since she collaborates with GNH and lives in Copenhagen. Therefore, we had meetings and telephone calls but it was no difficulties to communicate to each other and sign the papers.

I also assume it is still challenging to manage to find an Internship place during July & August months since majority of the companies/organizations are closed.

Internship place

MUNSI program has a focus on prevention tackling obesity for children and the aim of this program is to decrease the prevalence of childhood obesity in Portugal. MUNSI program coordinated by CEIDSS -  Center for Study and Research of Social Dynamics and Health -  congregate the municipality action, the initiative of University Professors and Researchers of National Institute of Health with institutional support. 

Bom Dia!

I am Baiba Suharevska from Latvia. I have been living in Denmark for almost 4 years. I am 4th semester student at Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen, Denmark. I'm studying Global Nutrition and Health, specializing in Public Health and Food Policy. It's 3½ years Higher education programme leading to a professional Bachelor's Degree.

This will be my first Internship Blog for 8 weeks during July and August in "MUN-SI/CEIDSS" in Portugal. Me and my friend Lina will go through first "real world" experiences during Internship and how to apply gained knowledge and skills in practice. 

Application process

Me and Lina decided to do internship together. We found this Internship opportunity through our teacher- Charlotte Dahl. She provided a contact list of potential internship places from different continents during one of our Internship Workshops. Why I choose Portugal, not another country? I imagine Portugal as- perfect climate, good food choices, culture, rich nature, amazing beaches; it's in Europe and of course football. :) I have never been in Portugal before, therefore it was bonus motivating point for me to go there. Overall application process wasn't long or stressful, because of our host supervisor. She is collaborating with our school and was present in Copenhagen, which helped a lot to sign all formalities and papers needed for Internship and arrange the interview, meeting. We got official confirmation from our host on June 6. Before that, we found already accommodation, flight tickets etc., which wasn't took so long time as I though. Meanwhile, it was hard in another way to manage all things- search for Internship, fix all the things before Portugal, work and focus for module 8.

Internship place

I will intern in "MUN-SI"- Programa de Promoção da Saúde Infantil em Municípios, which is coordinated by "CEIDSS" – Centre for Study and Research on Social Dynamics and Health (NGO) in Lisbon, Portugal. The main MUN-SI Program goal is to reduce progression of the prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity in Portugal through a set of activities in which local environments mobilize the community to the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Meanwhile, the Program intends to reach the National Health Plan on the obesity prevention, due to policies implementation on healthy eating habits and physical activity promotion.

My particular interest is to focus on mothers and child health and nutrition. Therefore, I would like to participate and be more involved in different activities regards to prevention of childhood obesity and "MUN-SI" is ideal and challenging place for me to see "how does it works" in real life.

I am very excited to begin my first Internship. I'm looking forward to share with you my experience, impression and view about Portugal and MUN-SI through all my Internship period.