Group tackles obesity with board game
A group of high school students have developed a board game to help tackle obesity.
As part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), six Auckland Girls’ Grammar School students formed a team called Young Influence.
YES encourages young people to get involved in business innovation.
Mia Lie, Grace Kolone, Lauryn Patea, Eseta Tupouniua, Violina Asafo and Cynthia Irabor created a board game called Food Chase, which promotes healthy living and raises awareness about obesity.
The game was made for schools, small groups and families - especially those who were at high risk of obesity.
The aim of the game was to lose kilojoules as players went around the board.
Players begin with 2000 kilojoules and when they land on a space, they either answer a multiple choice question, do a gym workout or other fitness activities.
The group chose to use kilojoules instead of calories to make the game more relevant to New Zealand, Patea said.
As the chief executive, Kolone said the group mutually decided to focus on obesity as it was becoming prominent in New Zealand and creating other health problems for people.
‘‘We’re really passionate about it because it affects our own families,’’ Kolone said.
‘‘We wanted to make a product
‘‘We're really passionate about it because it affects our own families.’’ Grace Kolone
to basically create awareness and to prevent it from happening to other families and members of our community.’’
To ensure the game had accurate health information, the group received advice from a nutritionist and the head of their school’s science faculty.
So far, the group has sold 60 board games to the Rotary Club of downtown Auckland, other schools and individuals. Selling that many games was a good feeling, the girls said.
‘‘We’re really proud of our achievement so far,’’ Kolone said.
They also received help from Rotary downtown Auckland youth service chair Heather Robinson and their teacher Jennifer Sturme. ‘‘I’m so proud of them,’’ Sturme said.
YES is an extra curricular activity for the girls which they spent their own time on, she said. ‘‘They worked hard and pulled it all together.’’