The Governor of the Upper River Region, today declared the 2023 Sport for Health officially opened.
Governor Samba Bah, who was addressing participants gathered at the St. George’s Lower Basic School to mark the beginning of the annual event organized by the National Sport Council in collaboration with Non Communicable Diseases Unit of the Ministry of Health, enjoined participants to embrace physical activities in order to improve on their health status.
Hon. Bah promised to ensure that from henceforth, his office will ensure that such an activity happens in his region at least once every month.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of the National Sport Council, Marchel Mendy, commended the Governor of URR and his office for the collaboration and for ensuring the Sport for Health 2023 was a success.
Mr. Mendy went on the explain that the Sport for Health which takes theee days to complete aims to instill in the citizenry, a culture of regular exercise in order to combat non communicable diseases which according to him, have become prevalent. He encouraged participants to ensure they continue to do regular exercise even after this year’s event.
For his part, the Director of Health Services, Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, told the gathering that regular physical activity is one of the surest ways of eliminating non communicable diseases, adding “anyone who does regular physical exercise reduces the chances of him or her visiting the hospital “.
Deputizing for the WHO Country Representative, Dr. Momodou Gassama, revealed that according to WHO statistics, one out of every four adults are inactive and that about 80% of adolescents worldwide are inactive and over eight hundred thousand people die annually as a result of conditions highly related to inactiveness. This he said calls for concerted efforts to address the situation, hence the annual Sport for Health.
The Sport for Health 2023 is jointly funded by the WHO, the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Health.