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Santos ‘A’ carts off Petra/Caribbean Wellness Day football tournament
With the focus being that of raising awareness about healthy living and how persons can help in the fight to reduce non-communicable disease, Petra Organisation in collaboration with the Ministry of Health staged a one-day Football Tournament which was won by Santos ‘A’ after they defeated St Pius Primary 2 – 1 in the final yesterday.
Ministry of Health’s Tamika Noel hands over the winning trophy to Santos ‘A’ Captain after yesterday’s Petra/Caribbean Wellness Day football tournament. Also present is Petra Organisation representative Marlan Cole.
Played in sultry conditions, four units of football crazy young ball weavers converged at a venue which is located next to the Ministry of Health Headquarters on Brickdam and Vlissingen Streets to participate in the inaugural competition and after listening to short but encouraging remarks from Executive Director of The Caribbean Public Health Agency Dr. James Hospidales, play officially got underway.
In the opening games, St Pius Primary, the team that sprung to prominence after playing undefeated in last year’s Courts Pee Wee Football Tournament, defeated Santos ‘B’ on penalty kicks, while Santos ‘A’ edged Rasville 1 – 0 to set up a mouth watering clash between the two winners.
In the final, the two teams treated the fans to an exciting brand of football with the game going into extra time where the eventual winners through a Dellon Niles strike in the dying moments of extra time handed them victory.
Bernard Nurse (Santos ‘A’) was adjudged the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Offering comments about the day’s activity, Marlon Cole, Co-Director of the Petra Organisation, said that the event was very important in spreading the word about healthy living and pointed out that doing it through the youths is one way of not only safe guarding their future, but also saving the lives of our next generation of athletes.
“Me being a functionary within the Ministry of Health, it’s important that I help in whatever way to help promote healthy living. It’s scary that eight out of every 10 people in a room have some form on non-communicable disease and most of them are ignorant too about it as well, so spreading the word through our youths is important. Telling them from an early age what to do and how to eat will go a long way” Cole said.
The CARICOM Heads of Summit on Chronic Diseases in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, September 2007, established Caribbean Wellness Day.
Caribbean Wellness Day is observed every year on the second Saturday of September. Inaugurated in 2008, Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) is an annual event which provides an opportunity to increase the awareness of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden in the Caribbean; mobilise and strengthen public, private, and civil society partnerships for NCDs; promote multi-country, multi-sectoral activities in support of wellness; and showcase national and community level activities to promote healthy living and encourage residents to develop good health practices.
The first four years, 2008-2011, focused on raising awareness of Caribbean Wellness Day at the national, regional and international levels.
In 2012, a decision was taken to focus on preventing and controlling NCDs throughout the life course during 2012-2015. Caribbean Wellness Day observance was to be integrated into national NCDs Programmes to ensure sustainability.
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