Via Sano

About Via Sano

VIASANO is a community-based health promotion programme in Belgium focused on helping children, families, and local populations adopt healthier everyday habits. It works through local authorities and mobilises schools, school cafeterias, associations, sports clubs, health professionals, retailers, and other community actors around balanced eating and regular physical activity.

The programme positions itself as a practical, positive prevention initiative rather than a prescriptive campaign. Its approach is grounded in official scientific recommendations and aims to change the local environment through small, concrete adjustments that make healthier choices easier and more sustainable for families.

VIASANO is coordinated nationally by the VIASANO non-profit association, which develops, animates, evaluates, and supports the network of participating cities and communes.

Core Values

• Health prevention: VIASANO is built around preventing overweight and obesity by encouraging balanced diets and sufficient physical activity from an early age.
• Positive, non-stigmatising approach: The programme explicitly avoids stigmatising people, behaviours, or foods, and instead promotes gradual change through encouragement and practical support.
• Scientific grounding: Messages and actions are validated against official scientific recommendations and overseen by an expert committee that reviews the programme and its evaluation.
• Community mobilisation: VIASANO values collective action, bringing together local stakeholders so that healthier habits are supported by the surrounding environment, not just individual willpower.

Unique Aspects

• Local-authority-led model: VIASANO is implemented by local authorities, with cities and communes financing local staffing and actions while the national coordination supports the network.
• International programme lineage: The Belgian programme is rooted in the Fleurbaix Laventie Ville Santé study and the EPODE methodology, which showed that school-based nutrition education and local mobilisation could reduce childhood overweight and obesity.
• European project experience: VIASANO participated in the EU-supported EPHE and OPEN projects, including work in Mouscron and several Belgian cities, and used those projects to strengthen its methodology and reach.
• Networked expertise: The programme is backed by an expert committee and is part of the international Youth Health Community network of 12 intervention programmes sharing know-how and experience.
• Recognised public-health operator: In 2023, VIASANO was approved for five years as a health-promotion operator, and in 2022 it received an AVIQ subsidy for the project "Ensemble pour manger mieux dans les villes et communes wallonnes".