Most of the proposals focus on physical activities in and after school, healthy lunch menu, information dissemination and other activities involving the communities.
Each State, except for Koror, will receive $800 from the Ministry of Health (MOH) to fund their projects. Koror will receive $1,800.
The program is being funded by the Israel Government. The Family Health Unit and Non-Communicable Disease Unit of the Public Health also gave an additional $5,000 funding.
“Many projects will deal with physical activities,” Kuartei said, “some through schools, some through the community.” They have one year to work on the project.
Kuartei added that they are going to meet with the state leaders in three months to make sure that the programs are being implemented.
At the first session of the Ngiwal State legislature held on October 14, the childhood obesity prevention project was discussed among the State Leadership, which gave its full support to the project. They proposed for a healthy lifestyle change among the youth, which includes home gardening, promotion of local food and sustainable food security, control of alcohol, tobacco and caffeine usage and physical activities in schools and within the community.
In Angaur Elementary School, they will start an after-school walk-a-thon, which aims to get all the 28 students, 11 teachers and 17 parents to be involved.
Ngaraard state will focus on coordination of community-based project activities to educate the children about the effects of obesity and diabetes. The activities will include presentations and lectures by medical experts in each of the five hamlets of Ngaraard. They also propose to have more physical activities in schools, namely, the walk to and from school initiative, inclusion of more sports and physical exercise in school activities, learning traditional fishing methods and others.
Airai will include diet menu in school lunch, camping and seminars on health issues and obesity, control and support and guidance from home and the community.
Kuartei said the rest of the states will be submitting their proposals in two weeks.
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