Healthy Bodies Promoted at School Fair

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Education

Friday, 08 February 2013 02:30

By Delana Isles

Antigua St. John's - More than 600 primary and secondary school students from across the country, drawn from grade six to fifth form, were treated Thursday to the first ever schools’ health fair.

The event, held at the Ottos Comprehensive School, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is part of Education Week activities.

One of the co-ordinators, Health Education and Promotions Manager Sharilyn James, said the programme will promote a healthy environment among youths.

"This is like our pilot programme, and we want to take the data from here and make it an annual thing," she said.

The fair was held under the theme, “Healthy Bodies, Healthy Schools”.

Organisers decided on 10 students from each class.

"From what we have seen here, it looks as if it can be a great thing among school kids,” James said. “We screen them for a number of things like asthma, scoliosis, diabetes, hypertension, Body Mass Index (BMI), vision, and we also check their teeth.”

The children were counselled on building their self-esteem, making wise choices, depression, healthy eating habits, peer pressure, stress, and any other concerns they had.

A counsellor from the national HIV/AIDS programme told Caribarena that the agency felt it had to show up, as any information disseminated is enough to empower people, and HIV is no small issue.

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"It is helping younger persons in the school environment to understand that life skills is more important, because with life skills, persons are able to make healthy and wise choices," the counsellor said.

Students were educated about the means of transmission of the deadly virus, preventative measures, and other sexually transmitted infections (STI).

Meanwhile, the faculty and medical students of the American University of Antigua (AUA) were out promoting healthy lifestyles and providing testing for students.

"We are trying to promote health and to get people to start to be aware of health issues that children have, and to start thinking about how they can be healthy, productive children, because if they're not feeling well, they're not going to do well in school, they're not going to do well in a lot of different areas, if they are not healthy," said Dr Angela Adams, the community outreach co-ordinator for AUA.

AUA Public Relations Coordinator and Wellness Ambassador Sumita Balooja said, "This is also a great way to get the students into the community and get them active in the community. It is also a great way to practice what they are learning and have more hands on [experience].”

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