On August 9th 2019, the Ministry of Health in St. Kitts and Nevis, in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister, officially launched St. Kitts & Nevis (SKN) Moves.

This initiative is part of the Caribbean Moves program which seeks to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by focusing on healthy eating, physical activity, and age-appropriate health checks.

August 9th 2020, marks the first anniversary of the launch and the Ministry of Health’s Health Promotion Team is engaging in a week of activities from Saturday 8th to Friday 14th August 2020.

Events include:

• SKN Moves Health Walk – Saturday, August 8th at 5:30 am – Caribbean Cinemas to Frigate Bay Lawn
• SKN Moves Virtual Fitness Fest – Monday August 10th – Friday 14th at 6am & 6pm
• SKN Moves Health Fair – Friday, August 14th from 9am – 4pm- Independence Square

Everyone is invited to take part in this celebration so please do come out, take part and get moving. We’ll see you there!

On Friday 9^th August 2019, St Kitts and Nevis joined the Caribbean Moves family with the launch of SKN Moves.

Caribbean Moves is an initiative launched in 2018 that is based on the successful Jamaica Moves campaign and focuses on physical activity, healthy eating and age-appropriate health checks.

SKN Moves follows the launch of Barbados Moves and TT Moves at the end of last year all with the aim of tackling non-communicable diseases, which is now the major health challenge facing the Caribbean.

The launch of SKN Moves took place in Independence Square in Basseterre and was a whole-day event featuring health stalls, healthy food, exercise challenges and free health checks.

The formal launch ceremony began at 4pm and was chaired by Dr Hazel Laws, Chief Medical Officer, with remarks given by Senator Wendy Phipps, Senator with responsibility for health, and Dr the Honourable Timothy Harris, the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis. Additionally, special guest Dr the Honourable Chris Tufton, the Minister of Health in Jamaica, attended and discussed Jamaica Moves and its expansion into schools and workplaces.

With 83% of deaths in St Kitts and Nevis being attributed to non-communicable diseases, an effective approach to facilitating healthy lifestyle changes amongst the public is much-needed.

SKN Moves’ focus on physical activity, healthy eating and annual health checks can create a healthy environment that reduces the public’s risk of developing NCDs such as diabetes and heart disease.

During the formal launch ceremony, Dr Timothy Harris explained how they’ll be measuring the success of the campaign. He informed the audience that their objectives are to facilitate

• A 10% reduction in physical inactivity by 2020
• A 5% increase in the consumption of fruit and  vegetables
• A 5% increase in the number of people accessing one medical check-up a year
• An overall 10% reduction in the prevalence of NCDs by 2025

SKN Moves started this journey with a focus on physical activity and on Saturday 10^th August at 5am, a health walk was organised to highlight the importance of keeping fit and active.

We look forward to seeing what the future holds for SKN Moves and how the Ministry of Health aims to build on the three focus areas of the campaign. We wish them every success with this initiative and encourage everyone to get involved.

The Caribbean Moves campaign is growing with a third Caribbean country launching their version of this initiative. On 7^th December 2018, Trinidad and Tobago joined the Caribbean Moves family with the launch of TT Moves at the Brian Lara Promenade, in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh explained that this campaign is just one of their approaches to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases in their Caribbean nation. He stated that this campaign is a continuation of their plan to move the public from an unhealthy to a healthier lifestyle, explaining that:

“When I say a healthier lifestyle, I mean how we eat, how we exercise, controlling our stress levels, moving away from this, as social-media electronic toys which shackle us to a device and we sit down.

“We have to start to exercise some more. Simple walking, simple jogging. We have to bring into our diets healthier options like fruits. Today we are giving out fruits and fruit trees. We want people “to gradually change their lifestyles, not change today for tomorrow.”

The launch of TT Moves follows the launch of Barbados Moves in October 2018 with more Caribbean nations expected to join the movement in 2019.

Caribbean Moves is an initiative launched in 2018 that is based on the successful Jamaica Moves  campaign and focuses on physical activity, healthy eating and age appropriate health checks. They’re in the process of establishing a secretariat and their remit is to develop an implementation schedule, coordinate activities and strengthen existing work in the Caribbean Region.

Picture Credit: Anil Rampersad, pictured is  Terrence Deyalsingh,  the Minister of Health for Trinidad and Tobago 

Following the launch of Caribbean Moves, a new initiative based on the successful Jamaica Moves campaign, the Ministry of Health and Wellness in Barbados launched their Barbados Moves campaign.

The launch took place on 20^th October 2018 and was led by Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, Barbados’ Minister of Health and Wellness. In attendance was Dr Christopher Tufton Jamaica’s health minister, who said:

‘Caribbean Moves’ is an attempt to mobilise the region one country at a time, and one person at a time through taking personal responsibility for your health and by doing the things that are responsible for a healthy life.

“Finally, it’s about uniting the Caribbean through one message, one method, one approach and by extension strengthening us as a people.”

Barbados Moves will form the island’s national approach to tackling non-communicable diseases and will focus on three key areas, similar to Jamaica Moves,  which are physical activity, healthy eating and knowing your health status.

Image Credit: Barbados Moves (Instagram)

On 27^th September 2018, Caribbean leaders hosted a breakfast meeting at the UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York. The theme for this meeting was “Moving the Caribbean Towards Healthier Lives – Step It Up!”

Chaired by Dr Timothy Harris,  the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, leaders used this meeting to announce the launch of Caribbean Moves, an initiative that aims to re-energise health promotion efforts across the Caribbean through creative  and innovative partnerships.

Caribbean leaders recognised that progress has been made in tackling NCDs but with the Caribbean’s mortality rate for NCDs being the highest in the Americas, a more coordinated approach is needed. Caribbean Moves aims to achieve this.

Caribbean Moves will build on the very successful Jamaica Moves campaign which focuses on physical activity, healthy eating and age appropriate health checks.  The Jamaica Moves campaign is led by Dr Christopher Tufton, Jamaica’s Minister of Health, who is a very active participant in the Jamaica Moves campaign. He said of Caribbean Moves:

“This programme is intended to scale up the efforts of ongoing national programmes for increasing physical activity and healthy eating across the Caribbean. Among other things, Caribbean Moves will galvanise countries under one vision but each countries project will be unique fostering a cultural and social movement for regular physical activity within the Caribbean.”

Over the next few months a secretariat will be established for the Caribbean Moves initiative and their remit will be to develop an implementation schedule, coordinate activities and strengthen existing work in the Caribbean Region.

We look forward to seeing the Caribbean Moves initiative develop and are currently working on our own efforts to tackle NCDs in St Kitts and Nevis through a new piece of work  we are undertaking with the FIT Wellness Centre in Nevis. More information about this project will be available soon.

Picture Credit: CARICOM

It is Caribbean Wellness Day on 8th September and this day kicks off a week of wellness activities to celebrate Caribbean Wellness Week.

Caribbean Wellness Day  started in 2008  following the CARICOM Summit on Chronic Diseases held in Trinidad in September 2007. This annual event was established 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, multisectoral activities in support of wellness; and
• showcase national and community level activities to promote healthy living and encourage residents to develop good health practices.

Wellness Walk 

We attended the St Kitts Caribbean Wellness Week’s planning meetings organised by the Ministry of Health and are delighted invite you to the St Kitts Caribbean Wellness Day Walk on 8th September at 5AM (!).

The Ministry of Health will be partnering with Elite Fitness and other local gyms to spearhead the inaugural Caribbean Wellness Day Walk. This is just one of the many activities organised to commemorate  Caribbean Wellness Week which runs from 8th to 14th September.

Owner of Elite Fitness, Althus Herbert, said:

“The Elite Fitness Gym is glad to have been afforded the opportunity to partner with the Ministry of Health for Caribbean Wellness Week and honoured to be the leading gym to spearhead the walk. We pride ourselves in maintaining the physical well-being of our clients. We are also looking forward to this being an annual event and collaborating on future events with the ministry,”

The meeting point is at the Caribbean Cinemas  parking lot. The event will start with a warm-up activity and then attendees will make their way to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and back.

Registration is just $10EC for children who are 12 and under and $20EC for attendees who are 13 or older.  We delighted to say there is a special corporate registration package of $15EC per person for every 10 people registered from the same organisation.

Join us for an invigorating, fun walk to start your day on a healthy note. We hope to see you there!

You can listen to a short promo clip here

Public Health England is conducting the first national survey to explore the health and wellbeing of people working in the sport, fitness and leisure industry.  This is a large industry with around 630,300 people working in the field accounting for 2% of the UK’s workforce.

Similar surveys have been conducted on people working in other sectors to determine the reasons for sickness absence. This is a significant issue in the UK with about 131 million work days lost through sickness absence.  These surveys found that sickness absence was due to ill health caused by feelings of discrimination, stress in the workplace and lifestyle choices.

This survey is being conducted to understand the general health and work status of people working in the sport, fitness and leisure industry.  They’d like to use the findings of the survey to inform employers on how they can better support the health and wellbeing of their staff.

If you’re interested in taking part in this survey, please click here for more information.

If you’re black African, black British or black Caribbean, we highly recommend that you take part so that any issues related to race and be properly identified and explored.

Yesterday, Public Health England published its guidance on how to get adults more active. In their report they state the benefit of physical activity –  it improves the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals. Then they explain how much activity adults should take part in. They recommend that adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, in bouts of 10 minutes or more.

They describe moderate-intensity activities as anything that causes you to get warmer and breathe harder and gets your heart rate up,  such as cycling or a brisk walk.

It is also recommended that adults aim to be active daily. Additionally, adults should include a muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days of the week to prevent loss of muscle mass.

Finally, their guidance stresses the importance of minimising the amount of time spent sitting for extended periods of time. This increases the risk of a number of health conditions.

They suggest the following to reduce the amount of time sitting:

• Reducing the time spent watching TV, using a computer or playing video games
• Reducing the amount of time sitting during work
• Walking part of the way on a long bus or car journey

Research has shown that many of the UK’s minority ethnic groups have lower rates of physical activity participation and do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity. Therefore it’s very important that the black community takes notice and becomes more active. The Lake Foundation through its cycling club is aiming to get our community more active. Please do join us for a fun way to get some exercise. For more information email events@thelakefoundation.com

The UK’s Change For Life programme has once again teamed up with Disney for the 10 Minute Shake Up campaign. This campaign aims to get children active over the summer by encouraging them to do 10 minute bursts of moderate to vigorous activity throughout the day every day, so they meet the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity that children need.

The 10 Minute Shake Up was launched in July 2014 and is back this year. The campaign is inspired by Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory and it uses Disney characters like to get kids involved in a range of fun activities such as swimming,  dancing and ball games.

To find out more visit their website here and for resources to get you started click here