BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—The Pan American Well being Group (PAHO) has launched a Inventive Play initiative in faculties to assist handle childhood weight problems.
PAHO mentioned the brand new initiative, in collaboration with the Ministry of Well being and Wellness, goals to deal with the rising difficulty of obese and weight problems in youngsters by growing revolutionary approaches to encouraging bodily exercise in faculties.
In keeping with information from a faculty well being examine in Barbados, 30 p.c of college youngsters are both obese or overweight.
PAHO mentioned more and more sedentary life are a vital driver of this.
“The Inventive Play Initiative goals to sort out this by implementing life-sized variations of youngsters’s video games, equivalent to Snakes and Ladders, to encourage elevated bodily exercise in school,” PAHO mentioned.
“Not all youngsters are fascinated with aggressive sports activities, however most kids take pleasure in taking part in and having enjoyable,” mentioned Donna Barker, senior well being promotion officer on the Barbados Ministry of Well being and Wellness and creator of the Inventive Play Initiative.
“Whereas on social media, I discovered a number of movies displaying colourful and stimulating impediment programs drawn onto yards or play areas for kids. I believed this may very well be launched in Barbadian major faculties as a inventive manner for kids to remain lively since that’s the place they spend a lot of the day,” she added.
PAHO mentioned two faculties, St. Albans Main College and Charles F. Broome Memorial Main College, had been chosen to pilot the initiative.
“Thus far, the Inventive Play areas have been effectively obtained by each college students and academics and supply faculties with an area to bolster ideas taught in topic areas equivalent to arithmetic, social sciences, and well being by means of play actions,” PAHO mentioned.
Dr. Amalia Del Riego, PAHO/WHO Consultant for Barbados and the Japanese Caribbean, highlighted that as a result of elevated use of cell phones, tablets, and different gadgets, youngsters aren’t as bodily lively as they was.
“We should suppose exterior the field and be inventive to get youngsters extra lively,” she mentioned. “This initiative achieves this by infusing pleasure into bodily exercise.”
Because the pilot continues to show profitable, PAHO and Barbados plan to increase the initiative to different faculties all through the subsequent educational 12 months.
PAHO mentioned there are additionally plans to hitch forces with different companions to increase the initiative all through the nation.
New information launched by the World Well being Group (WHO) final week exhibits that, worldwide, one in eight folks at the moment are residing with weight problems.
WHO mentioned weight problems amongst adults has greater than doubled since 1990 and has quadrupled amongst youngsters and adolescents aged 5-19 years.
On the World Well being Meeting in 2022, Caribbean and different member states adopted the WHO Acceleration plan to cease weight problems, which helps country-level motion to deal with this rising difficulty, PAHO mentioned.
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