Wellness Week 2019: Building Healthy Schools
Promoting a healthy life style at an early age has significant benefits. It promotes the ability of children to learn, grow and develop into healthy adults. This week, expos were organized in Dangriga and Belize City to encourage habits that will reap significant benefits for their well-being down the road. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Building Healthy Schools is the theme for Wellness Week 2019 and earlier this week, the Belize Diabetes Association of New York in collaboration with the Ministries of Health and Education organized two expos promoting wellness at the Ecumenical High in Dangriga on Wednesday and the Anglican Cathedral College today. The event is to promote healthy practices at an earlier age to tackle chronic diseases.
Vanessa Jenkins-Young
Vanessa Jenkins-Young, President, Belize Diabetes Association of New York
“About seven years ago, one of our members who is a teacher, Ernestine Augustus, said to really get to the problem of diabetes management, we have to get to the kids. And so we came full circle last year when Misses Wade from Stann Creek Ecumenical said to us that we really needed to do something. And then I said, you know what, it is like right in our face. So I spoke to Carol Babb and Robyn Daly and here we are today. We were in Dangriga. We always go to Dangriga because the incidents and prevalence of diabetes is there is Dangriga. We are nine years old; we’ve been doing this for nine years. Not doing this, but what we do and it was really good. Just like today, I mean very exciting to see the children and their interest in improving their health. And it is not just diabetes, by the way; it’s wellness.”
There were other health agencies with booths at the wellness expo, including the Kidney Association. Acting Vice Principal Janine Longsworth says that the institution has four hundred and fifty students, who have been engaged since the start of the week in wellness activities.
Janine Longsworth
Janine Longsworth, Acting Vice Principal, A.C.C.
“It started out for us with a door competition where students had to place on record, on their doors, something in relation with wellness and the theme today which is “Building Healthy Schools.” And so students went all out for that; they worked along with their homeroom teachers. There is a competition going on for that; students can win first, second and third place prizes. They have been doing charts and different posters and meal preparations for today’s activities. So if you walk around and see the displays, definitely you are going to see a wide array of displays and students were very enthused about this. I mean at A.C.C., we try to incorporate wellness into our regular routine so on Thursdays we have what has been dubbed as “Our Water Day.” And so on that day, students only consume water. So it is nothing really new for us, but definitely we are trying to inject more of it into our curriculum as well.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
