Caribbean Wellness Day for Ocho Rios on September 14

The Ocean Village Shopping Centre in Ocho Rios, St. Ann will be abuzz with activity on Saturday, September 14, as the Ministry of Health stages a number of activities in observance of Caribbean Wellness Day 2013.

Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, Takese Foga, said there will be free health checks, including blood pressure and blood sugar tests, presentations on healthy eating, and demonstrations of physical activity that persons can do at home to improve their overall health.

“We will be having competitions for the youth, no smoking jingle competitions, dancing competitions, a workout session area, and nutritionalists available to do counselling. Persons from the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) will do counselling as well,” she informed.

She was speaking to journalists at the launch of the event on Friday, September 6, at Rooms on the Beach in Ocho Rios.

In addition to the national event, Miss Foga said activities will be held in other parishes. These include youth fora, health fairs, football competitions, and sensitization sessions.

“In the West, they will be having a march highlighting the risk factors of physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, smoking and the harmful use of alcohol,” she informed.

Miss Foga praised the sponsors of the event, noting that they “are playing a significant role every time they invest in an activity like this. It is seeking to further educate persons, and it is also giving persons an opportunity to look at themselves. Sometimes, people are overweight and they don’t know how much at risk they are, so it is giving individuals an opportunity to examine their behaviour,” she stated.

The annual Wellness Day is part of measures agreed to by the Heads of Government of CARICOM, during a Special Regional Summit held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in 2007, to strengthen regional health institutions, and to reduce chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).