(Photo: ‘Walk 4 Health– Gambia’)
By Ramatoulie Jawo
‘Walk 4 Health– Gambia’ on Saturday celebrated 3 years of existence at the independent stadium in Bakau, on the theme – strengthening community health resilience through walk exercise, under the motto “One for All, All for one”.
The Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Bakary Y. Badjie while addressing the gathering encouraged the participants to be active all the time so that they can be able to fight non-communicable disease; adding that ‘the best form of exercise for all age categories is walking’.
Omar Badjie NCD programme manager at the Ministry of Health said his ministry is doing all it could to eradicate non-communicable diseases, because 34 percent of all deaths in The Gambia are NCD related.
“They are lifelong diseases. Once you have this disease, there is no conventional cure for it and you must go for lifelong treatment,” he said.
He disclosed that they are inspired by the ‘Walk 4 Health– Gambia’ initiative, and encouraged everybody towards doing walk outs daily to maintain their health, because even WHO recommended that everybody should try at least do some walk out for 45 minutes everyday.
Njilan Senghore, Managing Director at Trust Bank Gambia Ltd. encouraged the women folks to be more active and keep doing more exercise to keep their family members healthy because without health they cannot take care of anyone.
Mariama Jallow (MJ), owner, MJ hairdressing and skill centre, a pioneer member of the ‘Walk 4 Health – Brikama chapter’, highlighted the impact of the exercise on her and others.
Prior to my joining the group, I used to have a heavy weight but by walking, I now lost 25 kilos which is very helpful for me,” he said. “Walking can give someone good health without seeing a doctor. The more distance you cover, the healthier you become. With Walk 4 Health, we can all live healthier in healthy communities.”
The ‘Walk 4 Health– Gambia’ was initiated on 2nd February 2019 by a few people with the purpose of encouraging people to exercise as part of their activities for their wellbeing. Members of ‘Walk 4 Health– Gambia’ include senior citizens both retirees and active civil servants.
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