05 Mar 2014

Bakgatla came in large numbers at Rasesa to commemorate the SADC Healthy Lifestyle Day on February 28.

The commemoration of the SADC Healthy Lifestyle Day in Botswana started in 2008 and it is held on the last Friday of February every year.

Iit was aimed at helping the public to define the extent of non-communicable diseases and the risk factors of an unhealthy lifestyle and the strategies to deal with the disease.

The rate of non-communicable diseases is growing fast and this is due to lack of health facilities, alcohol and drug abuse, and the change in lifestyle, and all these lead to poverty and sudden deaths. Therefore, SADC member states wanted to deal with non-communicable diseases.

Namibia’s Deputy High Commissioner to Botswana, Mr Charles Josob, said non-communicable diseases threatened the stability of families, business institutions, and the region, politically and economically.

He said SADC countries wanted to reduce cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and cancer by encouraging people to make a healthy diet, physical exercise, and appropriate use of alcohol part of their daily lives.

Mr Josob said undergoing regular screening and controlling body weight was the first line of defence in the fight against cancer and heart diseases. He added that if people talked openly about these diseases, they acquired knowledge that allowed them to prevent or treat the ailments.

“Our governments continue to make efforts to avail medical services to all citizens therefore I encourage members of the communities to consider establishing funds in order to save lives of our loved ones,” he said.

Dr Felicitas Zawaira, a WHO representative, said that WHO estimated that every year non-communicable diseases kill approximately 36million people, representing 63 per cent of all deaths worldwide.

“If we don’t double up our efforts to reduce the risk factors now, the consequences may be too ghastly to contemplate,” she said. “These diseases are fast becoming the biggest threat to human existence and they weigh heavily on incomes of families and economies of countries.”

Dr Zawaira said non-communicable diseases were the world’s biggest killers and a challenge to development in the 21st century; and the rapidly increasing burden of these diseases is affected poor and disadvantaged populations disproportionately contributing to widening health gaps between and within countries.

She called on participants at the SADC Healthy Lifestyle Day to make their health their own responsibility. ENDS