Mrs Soludo takes healthy living campaign to grassroots
By Chioma Ezeiru
The wife of the Anambra State Governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health, Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU Youth Wing), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and Nigerian Red Cross has taken the 'healthy living campaign to the youths and people of Orumba-North Local Government Area.
The event, which took place at the local government headquarters, Ajalli, was aimed at sensitising the youths of the area on healthy living lifestyle and empowering them with basic life saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills to help them live longer, save lives and be good members of the society.
The governor's wife via a virtual interactive session with the youths said that Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo is a crusade and community youth engagement project with the vision to promote healthy lifestyle as key to a liveable and prosperous state.
"Our mission is to mobilize all the critical segment of the society to make healthy living a culture and lifestyle.
"Healthy Living is a project I started about 18 years ago as a passion, then, business and now it has metamorphosed to a crusade because health is the greatest wealth, and we want it to become a culture in our families, communities and society," she said.
The first lady, while sensitising the youths, enumerated six pillars of healthy living which include; Nutrition, Exercise and Physical Fitness, Environmental and Personal Hygiene, Mental health Emergency life saving skills (CPR) and Reproductive health.
She stressed that nutrition is very important in healthy living as many sicknesses and diseases can be prevented with nutrition and good personal and environmental hygiene.
"Nutrition, hygiene, exercise and physical fitness are very important in healthy living to prevent many sicknesses and diseases. Also, when the diet is wrong, medicine is of no use, but when the diet is correct, medicine is of no need."
She enjoined the youths to propagate and be ambassadors of healthy lifestyle in their various communities as well as shun drug abuse and social vices which could lead them to premature death.
Orumba-North NDLEA Commander, Mr Callistus Omeje noted that drug abuse which is the indiscriminate use of either synthetic or natural drugs without prescription from a qualified medical professional, has both social, psychological and physical consequences.
He admonished the youths to desist from all forms of drug abuse and hard drugs intake which could shorten their life span and truncate their various aspirations and destinies.
Similarly, Dr Afam Obidike, Commissioner Anambra State Ministry of Health, who taught the youths on life saving emergency skills and proper ways of administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR) said;
"We came to Orumba-North to enlighten the people on healthy living lifestyle. It is an initiative of the governor's wife which aims at helping our people eat healthy, live longer and be physically fit."
Speaking, the Orumba-North Transition Committee Chairman, Mr Ogochukwu Ekwueme commended Gov. Soludo and his amiable wife for bringing the healthy living campaign to the good people of Orumba North, expressing willingness to partner and key into the solution agenda.
"I thank the governor for the opportunity to serve the people of Orumba-North, we will always key into the solution agenda, and the first lady for bringing healthy living campaign to the grassroots.
"It was a very exciting time for the youths of this Local Government Area as we launched the project.
"It was also enlightening that even at my age and level, I still learnt so much today. We did practicals on how to properly administer CPR. I encourage the youths to put into good use all that they learnt.
"The sensitization was educative, informative and transformative. They should keep themselves engaged positively, stay focused and healthy because health is wealth," he said.
The ASATU Youth President, Mr Ken Okoli said that the campaign will be taken to all the 21 local government areas of the state to ensure that the message penetrates to the nook and crannies of the state.
"This is a crusade for healthy living and youth development. We are taking the campaign to all the 21 local government areas and communities to sensitise our people on the benefits of living healthy and imbibing the culture of healthy living to increase our life expectancy.
"We are building a new breed of young leaders that will make good health a priority in whatever they do and wherever they find themselves. We also charge them to take this message back to their various communities and promote healthy lifestyles among their peers," he said.
Nanka youth leader, Mr Chikwendu Obijiofor said that the campaign is a welcome development, noting that the campaign is timely and he is glad to be a part of this all encompassing topic of healthy living.
He thanked Mrs Soludo and the organizers for a well thought out programme and pledged to uphold and disseminate the knowledge acquired to the youths and members of his community.
(Ministry of Information)
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