Students Lectured on Healthy Living at Health Month Opening

tudents of the Claudia Creque Educational Centre Primary Division teach the gathering about healthy eating at the opening ceremony of Project Lifestyle Health Month on November 7

Speaking at the opening ceremony on November 7, Minister of Health and Social Development Honourable Dancia Penn, OBE, QC told the gathering the health challenges today among children are changing.  “From observation and screenings there are more and more children in school presenting with the biological and behavioural risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer,” the Minister said.

Honourable Penn added that in order to successfully tackle these problems, the Ministries of Education and Health will need to work closer together.  “We will have to strengthen partnerships and activities, as these are matters which cut across and transcend everything including constitutional remits,” she added. 

 Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Andrew Fahie told the students the most important part of any project lifestyle is

Students, officials and well wishers gathered at the Central Administration Building on November 7 to support the opening of Project Lifestyle Health Month which is being observed under the theme “Your Body, Your Life:  Make the Right Choice”

“Everything that is done starts with a thought and your mind develops it until it becomes an action,” the Minister said, adding, “if it is in your mind to live healthy then you will live healthy and this has to be taught to you and that is what project lifestyle is all about.” He further stated that living healthy does not simply mean eating correctly, it means doing the correct things.

Acting Chief Education Officer Dr. Marcia Potter said Project Lifestyle is a collaborative initiative with the health sector in five of the primary schools and it is their hope to introduce it in all schools in the near future.

Chairperson of the Project Lifestyle Committee Ms. Beverlie Brathwaite told the Department of Information and Public Relations that as educators they recognised the need to move closer to the education of the whole child, ensuring that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged.”

The month is being celebrated under the theme “Your Body, Your Life:  Make the Right Choice” and slogan “Be Aware, Choose with Care, The Consequences are Very Clear”.

Project Lifestyle Health Month is being celebrated under the theme “Your Body, Your Life:  Make the Right Choice” and slogan “Be Aware, Choose with Care, The Consequences are Very Clear”. It also coincides with the BVI Diabetes Association’s celebration of November as Diabetes Month which is being observed under the theme “Diabetes in Children and Adolescent”.

President of the BVI Diabetes Association Mr. Bennett Smith said this theme is particularly relevant to project lifestyle which deals with healthy living in children and adolescents. “The emphasis on dealing with diabetes should always be prevention and control.  You might be very strong now but if you are not careful with the way you live and what you do, it could affect you well into the future,” he warned.  ~~Adz:Left~~

The first Health Month was observed in 2006 under the theme “A Healthy Lifestyle is a Choice”.  Project Lifestyle, which is currently being piloted in five schools, was developed by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) in Jamaica and first introduced in BVI schools in 1998.