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.
- 1st Place (2103.3oz) Janesta Clarke
- 2nd Place (1988.3oz) Patricia Harris
- 3rd Place (1672.6oz) Bernard Maynard
Awards Ceremony
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:
- The In Ya Kitchen Healthy Cooking Competition
- Ready! Set! Sweat! Weight Loss Challenge
- Chronic Disease Self-management Challenge
- Corporate Wellness Challenge
We were delighted to attend this inaugural event to support our winners and also to hear speeches delivered by:
- Dr. The Hon. Timothy Harris, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis
- Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett, Minister for Health
- Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Coordinator, Ministry of Health
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.
Thank you!
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.
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