In February 2018, we became a member of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, a civil society alliance established to combat non-communicable diseases and their associated risk factors.
Soon after becoming a member of the HCC, the HCC launched their childhood obesity prevention campaign which aimed to raise awareness of childhood obesity in the Caribbean and influence the region’s leaders to champion and implement critical policies that will improve the health of our children, reduce childhood obesity and prevent the associated non-communicable diseases.
One of the key parts of this campaign was their childhood obesity prevention petition (call-to-action) which called on our Heads of Government to enact any of the following policies and legislation which have been demonstrated as effective measures to combat childhood obesity:
- Imposition of a tax of not less than 20% on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and use tax revenue for NCD prevention and control.
- Banning the sale, promotion and marketing of SSBs, and unhealthy foods and beverages in and around schools.
- Mandatory physical activity in all primary and secondary schools
- Adoption and application of regional standards for nutritional and front of package labelling of foods and beverages.
- Banning the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children (includes non-school environments)
- Enacting legislation related to The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
As a member of the HCC we got involved in this campaign by exploring how we could raise awareness of these issues here in St Kitts. We joined the HCC’s civil society action team and recruited volunteers from the St Kitts Volunteer Corp and UMHS to gain support for the HCC’s petition and to raise awareness of childhood obesity.
Our teenage volunteers from the Volunteer Corp worked on a childhood obesity podcast series which included four episodes that covered the causes and solutions. You can listen to these episodes here:
- Episode 1: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective
- Episode 2: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective on the Causes
- Episode 3: How We Stay Healthy
- Episode 4: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective on the Solutions
One of our main targets for this campaign was to obtain 500 signatures from residents of St Kitts and Nevis for the childhood obesity prevention petition. Our volunteers did a great job and we fell just shy of our target securing 454 signatures. The campaign came to an end in November 2018 and we’d like to say a big thank you to our volunteers from the Volunteer Corp and Because We Care for assisting with this project.
More Information
To find out more about this campaign, please visit the official HCC campaign website here or you can download some useful resources below:
Document: Childhood Obesity Brochure
Published by: The Healthy Caribbean Coalition
Publication Date: September 2018
Download here: Childhood Obesity Brochure
Document: Organisations taking part in the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention oucampaign
Publication Date: September 2018
Published by: the Healthy Caribbean Coalition
Download here
We also have a variety of articles and blog posts which you might find useful. Please visit our Childhood Obesity News Section and Childhood Obesity Blog to find out more.