Early Nutrition Specialist (ENS) Education Program: June to December 2018

In our concerted efforts to continue establishing a broad interactive educational and support platform for healthcare professionals, the NNIA has introduced a new training programme: The Early Nutrition Specialist. This is an e-learning initiative offered by Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, in collaboration with the Early Nutrition Academy, which targets paediatricians and doctors in practice.

The education programme was launched in Kenya and Uganda on 1 June 2018 and ran until December. In Kenya, the programme was implemented in collaboration with the Kenya Paediatric Association (KPA), as the target group consisted of its members. This joint effort would see both the Association and the NNIA achieve our objectives of enhancing capacity and knowledge on the latest science and developments in early childhood nutrition.

We had a successful graduation event for the Kenyan participants on 1 March 2019 at the Radisson Blue hotel in Nairobi and on 8 March at the Golden Tulip hotel in Kampala for the Ugandan participants. We registered a good success rate with the participants who completed all modules to meet the graduation criteria. Our target was to enrol 60 participants and we managed to register 35 in Kenya and 24 in Uganda. The success rate for completion was 94% and 80% in Kenya and Uganda respectively.

For both events, the keynote topic addressed by the speakers was “Nutrition in Early years- Impact on long-term health and well-being”. Dr. Sabrina Kitaka, senior paediatric lecturer at the College of Health Science at Makere University and a beneficiary of “NNIA ESPGHAN goes to Africa course 2012-2013 class, delivered the keynote speech to Ugandan graduates. Her counterpart in Kenya was Dr. Peter Gisore, a paediatrician and neonatologist at Aghakhan University Hospital.

One of the highlights of the ENS graduates’ experience sharing session was with Florence, a neonatal nurse at the International Hospital of Kampala. She was promoted to head the neonatal unit a week before the graduation event. Her promotion was due to an improvement in the quality of neonatal care practices at the unit, as well as her positive influence while sharing the knowledge she acquired from ENS e-learning modules.

Florence sharing her experience at ENS convocation, Golden Tulip Hotel, Uganda.


Dr. Sabrina Kitaka delivering the keynote address at ENS graduation, Golden Tulip hotel – Kampala.


ENS graduates, Golden Tulip Hotel Kampala.