06 Mar 2018

Young people have been advised to live healthy lifestyle in order to prolong their lives.

They were encouraged to exercise regularly as physical and mental fitness were important in their lives.

Fitness instructor, Mr Larona Thebe told participants during a fitness day held at Maun Sports Complex as one of the lined up activities of Month of Youth Against HIV/AIDS.

He said people who were both physically and mentally fit were less prone to medical conditions.

In addition, he said fitness helped muscular endurance and also helped one to become young.

He said there were many fitness centres in Maun and urged them to register, adding that they would be doing themselves justice as they would be preventing non-communicable diseases.

Mr Thebe also noted that the government was channeling a lot of money towards health issues, citing the treatment of non-communicable diseases and urged all to exercise to save government money which could be spent in other important projects.

Ministry of Health and Wellness, he said, was amongst the top five ministries which were allocated a large share of the budget.

He added that it has a mammoth task of enhancing primary health care hence the need for the community to adopt healthy lifestyles in order to reduce the impact.

He advised the public to change their eating habits, noting that they should reduce eating fatty foods and starch.

Mr Thebe also observed that they should eat more vegetables and fruits.

Meanwhile, the Ngami District Health Management team has said the youth population in the country continued to experience increased vulnerability to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

It said it was exacerbated by emerging life trends and uncontrollable technological growth which put pressure on their behaviour and response towards life threatening situations.

To spread the message to the youth easily about health related issues, a Wise Up campaign team held a road show which aimed to educate and engage the youth on their knowledge of HIV and prevention and comprehensive sexuality through various communication channels.

Wise Up is a multi-media HIV prevention campaign aimed at empowering the youth aged 10-29 with information on modes of HIV transmission, misconception and elevated risk of infection from drug and alcohol abuse. ENDS