We were absolutely delighted that our School Dance Competition was featured on the ZIZ News on 1st November. During the feature, our You’re Sweet Enough dance videos were featured and the public was introduced to the general rules of the competition.
We’d like to say a big thank you to ZIZ for this feature and if you missed it, you can watch it in the clip below.
And, to find out more about the competition you can visit this webpage
Today, 1st November 2021, Lake Health and Wellbeing in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education in St. Kitts, launched the You’re Sweet Enough Dance Competition.
Beginning today, both high and primary school children in St. Kitts and Nevis, their parents and teachers, as well as school alumni are eligible to enter the dance competition and receive a chance to win prizes including a Chromebook, a tablet, a projector, and a water cooler.
Participants will have to learn the official You’re Sweet Enough dance, record themselves performing the dance to the You’re Sweet Enough jingle and then upload the recording to the competition’s webpage for a public vote. To make their performance stand out, participants can add some variation to the routine and use props that will enhance the message of the jingle.
Participants will have three weeks to submit their recordings with submissions closing on 21st November and the public vote taking place from 22nd to 29th November.
Those interested in taking part in the You’re Sweet Enough Dance Competition can find out more about the rules, access videos of the official dance and jingle, and submit their recordings here.
Sponsors of the competition include Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, Taiwan ICDF, Pure Water and Island Purified Water.
From 22nd August to 5th September 2021, we hosted a No Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB), Drink Water Challenge in collaboration with St Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Health. This challenge was part of the Ministry of Health’s seven-week SKN Moves campaign and aimed to provide a fun way to encourage the public to make healthier beverage choices.
Over forty people registered to take part in the challenge and over the two weeks, they tracked their water consumption using a water tracking app and submitted videos and pictures sharing their progress. Additionally, we set up a WhatsApp group to allow participants to encourage each other and to build a small community around the challenge.
Our group of participants did a great job, remaining committed to the challenge and after reviewing their water tracking app submissions and calculating their water consumption over the two weeks, we selected three winners.
On Thursday 23rd September, our winners were awarded a certificate and prizes from Hon. Akilah Bryon-Nisbett, the Minister for Health for St Kitts and Nevis, at the first annual SKN Moves Awards Ceremony.
In addition to our prize winners, other people were recognised for participating in other challenges that were organised over the seven-week SKN Moves campaign. These included:
We were delighted to attend this inaugural event to support our winners and also to hear speeches delivered by:
All three speakers highlighted the government’s commitment to tackling NCDs with SKN Moves being just one part of their strategy. Now in its second year, the SKN Moves initiative aims to promote the prevention and control of NCDs through three core pillars: healthy eating, regular exercise and age-appropriate health checks. Furthermore, SKN Moves is part of a wider programme, Caribbean Moves, which aims to tackle the high rate of NCDs in the region through a collective approach. In addition to highlighting the SKN Moves campaign, speakers also discussed the Government’s efforts to tackle the overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages through their national SSB policy which is in its final stages of development.
We applaud the Ministry of Health for continuing to push forward with developing this policy which features a collection of evidence-based approaches to reduce the public’s consumption of SSBs. We look forward to seeing this policy finalized and implemented.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in our No SSB, Drink Water challenge and congratulations to all our winners.
We would also like to thank the Ministry of Health’s Health Promotion Unit for inviting us to become a member of this year’s SKN Moves Committee and Open Interactive for sponsoring our orientation session for our challenge participants. We look forward to next year’s campaign.
On 25th August 2021, as part of our You’re Sweet Enough week, we were delighted to host a panel discussion exploring an all-of-society approach to tackling non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and promoting healthy drinking and eating.
This event was part of a collaboration with the Ministry of Health and formed part of their seven-week SKN Moves campaign. Now in its second year, SKN Moves falls under the Caribbean Moves program which seeks to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region by focusing on healthy eating, physical activity, and age-appropriate health checks.
NCDs are the major public health challenge in St Kitts and Nevis Specifically, 54% of adults have at least one chronic illness, and before the pandemic, the Nevis Island Administration reported that 85% of hospital admissions were NCD-related (PAHO 2012; Ministry of Health). Additionally, 83% of deaths in St Kitts and Nevis are due to NCDs (Ministry of Health). Furthermore, the prevalence of diabetes in St Kitts and Nevis is three times higher than the world average, and our hypertension prevalence is 9% higher than the global average.
With so many people in St Kitts and Nevis being affected by NCDs, it is important for us to focus on prevention and control strategies and our You’re Sweet Enough campaign has been focusing on one NCD risk factor, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Our campaign aims to raise awareness of the harmful health effects of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, fruit drinks, energy drinks and sports drinks, and to encourage everyone to drink water as the healthy alternative.
Due to the very high level of sugar in SSBs, their regular consumption has been linked to weight gain and obesity, and being overweight or obese increases a person’s risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Research has shown that 45% of adults and 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese, and that this is contributing to the high rate of NCDs in the Federation.
By reducing SSB consumption, we can reduce a major source of sugar in our diets and this can lead to a reduction in NCD risk and related death and disability.
The panel discussion we hosted on 25th August, aimed to bring together representatives from a variety of sectors to explore how we can all work together to tackle risk factors like SSB consumption. This discussion was moderated by Isalean Phillip, our Advocacy and Research Officer and panelists included:
We had a very informative and insightful discussion on the prevention and control of NCDs. We touched on policies like SSB taxation, making healthy foods more affordable, public education and the marketing of healthy and unhealthy foods, and more. It was great to have youth representation on the panel from the St Kitts National Youth Parliament. They voiced their concern at the high rate of childhood obesity and called for action.
We would like to thank all the panelists for taking part in this discussion and Isalean for so ably moderating this important conversation. You can watch the recording of the event below and please feel free to leave any comments or questions that you may have in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you.
We were absolutely delighted that WINN Media featured our recent op-ed calling for Government action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
You can read this feature here
Thirty-eight individuals signed up to take the You’re Sweet Enough: No SSB Drink Water Challenge as part of the SKN Moves 7-week health campaign.
The No SSB Drink Water Challenge encourages persons to make healthier choices by eliminating the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and to drink water instead. Participants will track their water consumption daily using a water tracking app and submit photo or video testimonials about their experience. At the end of two weeks, those who consumed the most water will be awarded prizes.
A few challenge participants met for the first time at an orientation session where each person shared their motivations for signing up to drink only water for two weeks from August 22nd to September 5th. “Sugar is a drug that is bad for us, yet it is everywhere” said one participant who recognizes the negative health effects of consuming SSBs. Another participant expressed that the challenge is a natural progression of the healthy lifestyle changes that she’s trying to make. Multiple participants shared the fact that they have a family history of diabetes and other NCDs and so they were taking the No SSB challenge to improve their health chances and to set a better example in their homes and communities.
The You’re Sweet Enough: No SSB Drink Water Challenge is coordinated by Lake Health and Wellbeing during week 4 of the Ministry of Health’s SKN Moves 7-week health campaign. SKN Moves is an initiative designed under the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) Programme to create a healthy lifestyle culture centered on healthy eating practices, regular physical activity and regular health checks/screenings. You’re Sweet Enough is a health education campaign led by Lake Health and Wellbeing to inform and educate the public about the links between consuming SSBs and the development of obesity, diabetes and other NCDs.
You can find out more about our You’re Sweet Enough campaign on our campaign website.
The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) hosted a virtual conference on July 1, 2021. The conference was packed with interesting and informative panel presentations that aligned with the conference theme “Our Food, Our Health, Our People: Accelerating Healthy Food Policies to Tackle NCDs”. Participants learned from academics, legal experts, public health officials, health practitioners, youth advocates, and representatives from the CARICOM NCD Commission, FAO, and PAHO. Sessions covered topics around shaping our Caribbean food supply systems for healthier environments, improving food system governance by managing conflicts of interest and shaping people-centered movements for change.
Even though it was a virtual conference, participants had the opportunity to interact online and to get moving at home during scheduled health breaks that incorporated music, dance and guided breathing and mindfulness exercises, all of which were helpful activities to stay focused throughout the day.
During the lunch break, Abi Begho, Director at Lake Health and Wellbeing, facilitated a lunchtime conversation about the power of digital advocacy for healthier food environments, based on lessons learned from implementing the You’re Sweet Enough campaign. Digital platforms like social media are increasingly being used by various stakeholders to reach the public. As civil society organizations, we are learning to adapt and find innovative ways to amplify messages that sensitize the public and call policymakers to action as we advocate for healthier food policies and programs. From the conversation, we learned how social media can be strategically leveraged to target different audiences, we see how short video clips and animations are powerful and effective at communicating key messages, and we are encouraged to be consistent in posting and sharing content so that the scope and reach of our advocacy can be extended and amplified.
Check out the video clip below to view the Lunchtime Conversation on the Power of Digital Advocacy.
As part of our You’re Sweet Enough campaign we hosted a virtual screening of the documentary The Secrets of Sugar. This documentary exposes research results that reveal the shocking truth about sugar that the sugar industry has been hiding from consumers. You can watch this documentary below:
Following the screening, our founder, Abi Begho, and our Advocacy and Research Officer, Isalean Phillip, had an engaging discussion about the issues raised in this documentary including the food and beverage industry’s role in the obesity crisis and approaches to reducing the public’s consumption of sugar.
We had a fun time partnering with In Ya Kitchen and the St. Kitts Health Promotion Unit to create some tasty, easy to make unsweetened beverages as part of our You’re Sweet Enough campaign.
Check out the videos below to learn how to make a Mango Mystique and a Monkey Chaser. Try them out and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
On Saturday 12 June 2021, we teamed up with Black History Walks to host a webinar entitled the Dangers of Sweetened Beverages in the African Diaspora. This event was part of Black History Walks’ event series in conjunction with the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre.
The webinar was moderated by Abi Begho, the Founder of Lake Health and Wellbeing and speakers included:
This event provided us with the opportunity to extend our reach beyond the shores of the Caribbean Sea and connect with the Caribbean community in the UK. This connection to the Caribbean is an important one because our communities have the same health concerns. In the Caribbean, we are faced with an NCD epidemic. PAHO reports that 78% of all deaths in the Caribbean are due to NCDs and 76% of all premature deaths are caused by these diseases1. The rates of NCDs across the Caribbean are high with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer and stroke being the most common NCDs. In the UK, the African diaspora community, which includes communities with connections to Africa and the Caribbean, face the same health challenges. The Black community in the UK, have higher rates of type 2 diabetes, some cancers and hypertension than their white counterparts2,3. Additionally, they are more likely to be diagnosed with these conditions at a later stage and therefore have poorer outcomes.
Some of the factors fuelling the high rates of NCDs on both sides of the Atlantic are physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, harmful use of alcohol and tobacco use. To tackle NCDs, we have to encourage behaviour change that encourages people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Through our You’re Sweet Enough campaign we’re focusing on one aspect of the public’s lifestyle, healthy drinking.
Research has shown that the food we eat and the drinks we consume contribute to increasing our risk of developing NCDs. Specifically, sweetened beverages (SBs). These types of drinks have been linked to unhealthy weight gain and obesity, which are associated with NCDs. This is because of their very high sugar content. Hence, our campaign encourages the public to reduce their consumption of SBs and to select water instead.
This webinar was part of our drive to educate the public about the harms of SBs. We also used this opportunity to highlight the challenges that the public health community faces when implementing strategies to reduce SB consumption and examples of successful approaches. This event was very well received by participants, with there being a high level of engagement throughout the event with the chat and Q&A being very lively.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Black History Walk and the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for giving us the opportunity to raise awareness of this important issue. We would also like to thank all those who attended and last, but definitely not least, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Francine Charles, Rachel Morrison and Isalean Phillip for their very informative presentations.
If you missed this event, you can watch the recording below.
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