As part of her campaign to sensitize the public on anaemia, especially in Children and pregnant women, Miss Ghana 2003, Ms Serena Naa Dei Ashi-Roye, has held a day?s sensitization workshop for executives of the Greater Accra branches of the Ghana Hairdressers and Beauticians Association (GHABA) and the Dressmakers and Tailors Association.

The campaign which has the theme, ?Prevent anaemia ? your blood, your life, is being supported by the Nutrition Unit of the Ghana Health Service and the USAID-funded micro nutrient project (MOST).

Ms Ashi-Roye told the workshop participants that anaemia which is caused by poor diet, worm infestation and malaria is a big problem in the country.The symptoms she enumerated are feeling of dizziness, getting easily tired, having pale palms, nail beds and inner lower eyelids.

Ms Ashi-Roye advised them to eat foods rich in iron, such a meat, fish, poultry, beans, groundnuts, millet and kontomire. Eating vitamin C rich fruits, with meals, she added, also helps the body to make use of the iron in food.

The National coordinator of the Anaemia Control Programme, Ms Kate Quarshie said the nature of their work; hairdressers and dressmakers come into contact with women and therefore could serve as good conduits for information on anaemia to the public. She said similar sensitization programmes would be held in the other regions in the country.