A new initiative aimed at reducing obesity among school children has been launched.
A group of mostly physical education teachers attended a half-day training session at the Seychelles Hospital yesterday morning organised jointly by Hemas Hospitals which has teamed up with the Seychelles Hospital to equip the teachers with necessary information and skills to work with a group of obese children in their respective schools.
A group of specialists in the field from the Sri Lankan Hospital chain conducted the training after which the teachers were given CDs, videos and a booklet with a chart to record monthly Body Mass Index (BMI) of the pupils over a six-month period. At the same time the teachers should educate the children about ways to maintain a normal BMI.
Health officials from the Ministry of Health will also monitor each group and send a monthly report to Hemas Hospitals and Medical Tourism (Pvt) Ltd.
After completing the six months, the Ministry of Health will select the Best Achieve Teacher, who will be rewarded with an incentive trip to Sri Lanka with air ticket and accommodation sponsored by Hemas Hospitals and Medical Tourism (Pvt) Ltd.
Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Hemas Hospitals general manager Dr Chamila Ariyanada said the first intervention when beating diabetes is to attack obesity.
Diabetes is globally known as the silent killer because people can live many years without knowing they have the disease because they do not have any signs or symptom.
“Nevertheless many devastating and debilitating effects are caused by this deadly disease,” she said, stressing that it is a disease that can be completely prevented through awareness and by paying more attention to what we eat and how we live our lives.
The World Health Organisation has declared that diabetes is on an unstoppable march globally where one in 11 persons is affected by the disease.
Hemas Hospitals, a leading hospital chain in Sri Lanka, has decided to join hands with the Seychelles Hospital to conduct this training for teachers, the group of people who touch the lives of the younger generation of the country.
Dr Ariyanada urged the teachers to take the message home to the pupils to ensure early intervention so as to prevent obesity which leads to diabetes.
Highlighting the findings of the National Survey of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of 2013-2014, the chief executive of the Health Care Agency Dr Suresh Menon noted the remarkable increase in the prevalence of diabetes from 6.2% to 11% in men and from 6.2% to 10.8% in women between 1989 and 2013. This has been consistent with the increasing prevalence of obesity.
He said with new knowledge and evidence we know the consequences linked to obesity and this is why we should be more proactive in taking steps to control our weight.
“As a nation we are simply consuming too much of the wrong food; fatty and sugary food and not doing enough exercise to burn the excess energy. The problem of overweight and obesity is very apparent not only in the adult population but in a large number of children,” he remarked.
He said the NCDs school health annual survey found that almost 20% of our children are either overweight or obese, something which he said is very alarming.
It is expected that the new initiative will encourage teachers to push pupils to do more physical activities and eat more healthily.
“Healthy life style patterns must be a trend that we teach our children,” Dr Menon stressed, adding that a lot of work is being carried out by the Health Ministry and different agencies to try and address the problem.
But he noted that more needs to be done in a more aggressive way to strengthen legislations to prevent importation of unhealthy foods thus creating a more conducive environment to support healthy living choices.
Source : Seychelles NATION