Residents take a walk towards a healthier lifestyle

10 April 2017

 

Friday April 7 was a Healthy Lifestyle Day for residents of Rosettenville, Turffontein and Townsview in the City of Johannesburg’s Region F.

 

The City’s Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Health, in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the City’s Region F Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM), hosted day-long health-related activities at JC Lucas Park in Rosettenville.

The activities included a 5km family fun walk, cultural performances, gumboot dance, exercises and aerobics.

All participants in the family fun walk were each presented with medals, a cool drink and a fruit.

According to the City’s Operations Manager: Health Promotions, Nonhlanhla Magwaza, the aim of the annual event was to promote a healthy lifestyle in line with the City’s Growth and Development Strategy 2040 (GDS 2040).

“We want our communities to be accustomed to a healthy lifestyle and healthy living. By doing this we are helping in the fight against chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, tuberculosis, epilepsy and asthma, among others,” Magwaza said.

She said March had been declared International Tuberculosis Month by the World Health Organisation. “As a City, in recognition of the International Tuberculosis Month, we decided to go to communities and educate and empower residents about a whole range of lifestyle diseases and chronic illnesses, including tuberculosis, diabetes, hypertension and HIV-Aids,” Magwaza said.

She said the primary focus of the campaign was to improve the lives of our people and to help increase the life expectancy. “Our people die young. A nation without the youth is not a nation at all. When our senior citizens and elders die, who is going to take our country forward? Some of these life-threatening lifestyle diseases can be prevented at an early age,” she said.

Health practitioners were also on hand to screen residents for hypertension and diabetes.