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Health/wellness activities mark International Children’s Day
Scores of families assembled at the Square of the Revolution, Georgetown yesterday to participate in several health activities to mark Guyana’s observance of International Children’s Day.
International Children’s Day was initiated on June 1, 1925 in Geneva Switzerland. The annual observance is aimed at promoting the welfare of children, around the world.
A section of the gathering at the International Children’s Day observance, yesterday.
As such, the health/fun day initiative organized by the Ministry of Health’s Maternal and Child Health/Adolescent Department attracted scores of children, who participated in face painting, dancing, sport activities and a special programme, hosted by the group.
The youngsters, who were accompanied by their parents, also visited healthcare booths, which were erected on the premises.
Yesterday’s activity themed, “No Child Left Behind “was officially launched by Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, who noted that his Ministry is placing more emphasis on a multi-sectoral approach to promote a safer environment for children.
“The Ministry of Health cannot on its own provide adequate health services since there are many social determinants of health, which are most times the cultures and families,” Ramsaran stated.
He detailed that social practices have an enormous impact on the health status of individuals.
“The way in which children are brought up have a tremendous impact on the health and social habits they will inculcate as adults. It is therefore, important that we work with other agencies to ensure that the mothers and grandmothers, who in most cases, take care of the little ones, acquire the best knowledge and resources to do so.”
Children participate in question and answer segment at International Children’s Day, fair yesterday
In this regard, Ramsaran noted that the Ministry of Health is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Child Welfare Department of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to ensure that children receive the best care at the early stages of life.
“The Ministry of Health will work with these agencies to get nutrition in school and health centers; we are also encouraging improved canteen policy in schools. I call on Maternal and Child Health/Adolescent Department to engage the Parent Teacher Associations, (PTA) in a more formal manner to look at the canteen policies, so that we can better tackle effects of obesity and other unhealthy eating practices among children.”
Minister Ramsaran says that PTA has a leading role in ensuring that the nation’s children are educated and healthy.
“The PTA can do an essential thing which is ensuring our children are nutritionally balanced and vaccinated in their adolescent and early childhood years.”
The Minister explained that good health is a personal responsibility, which needs to be conceptualized in early life.
“That is the reason we will be pushing for the introduction of health clubs in schools, in addition to launching the youth wellness warrior initiative in September, where blood pressure testing and blood sugar testing can be done in schools, to assist in the fight against non- communicable diseases.”
Delivering her keynote address, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative for Guyana/ Suriname, Marianne Flach, said that the overall emphasis is on the health, education and protection of children, worldwide.
“As we all know, healthy children study better in schools and have better results. We place emphasis on vaccination programmes and school feeding programmes because we want to ensure that the children grow up to be healthy adults, who are also essentially important to a country’s economy,” Flach said.
She noted that Guyana will be celebrating twenty years as a country that had officially agreed to United Nation’s convention on the rights of the child.
“It is therefore very important that we safeguard children at a very young age. Scientific research indicates that children, who do not receive the best care during their early life, have more problems as adults. They have a bigger chance being obese or having heart problem and other health complications,” Flach added.
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