10 Jul 2023

 Stakeholders and participants in the four-day 80km Walk for Life Campaign from Kanye to Jwaneng have been applauded for making it a success. 

The initiative, which was launched last year, was intended to encourage communities to adopt lifestyles that could reduce the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as one of the leading causes of deaths in developing countries. 

Speaking at the end of the campaign in Jwaneng on Saturday, director-Technical Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Changi Baikai urged for future walks, saying this was only the beginning. 

He urged Batswana to take responsibility for their health exercising and adopting healthy lifestyles to reduce the prevalence of NCDs. 

“We should adopt this lifestyle, and make it a habit to walk at least 10 000 steps every day in order to beat NCDs. 

Most of us spend a lot of time seating, either at work or home, with little exercise, and this contributes to the high number of deaths we are see in our communities,” he said.  

He urged people to quit bad health habits such as smoking, which he said reduced their quality of life. 

Mr Baikai urged participants to share the message and encourage others to adopt healthy lifestyles. 

On behalf of the sponsoring partners, Dr Mogwera Mogalakwe of Stockfort Health urged community leaders to use their influence to encourage people to maintain healthy lifestyles. 

“At personal level, each one of us should make a commitment not to lose the effort and results of the tough four days that we just went through,” he said.

 Southern District Health Management Team coordinator, Mr Conrad Ntsuape underscored the need for collaborations in such initiatives. He appreciated the support from private sector and local authorities, which he said made the campaign a success.  He said apart from public education and sensitisation, the campaign also provided a platform for interactive conversations that towards health improvement. 

“As the DHMT we aim to promote community engagement on initiatives such as this one, so that collectively we can participate and work on solutions,” he said.ends