New project targets pupils, teachers

THE health and wellbeing of pupils and teachers was high on the agenda at the launch yesterday of the KaziBantu project Healthy Schools for Healthy Communities.

The project, a collaboration between Nelson Mandela University, Basel University in Switzerland and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, will be an upscaled version of the Disease, Activity and Schoolchildren’s Health Project (DASH) launched in 2014.

The project is funded by the Novartis Foundation and has the support of the provincial health and education departments.

KaziBantu was launched by the NMU human movement sciences department and aims to build on the work conducted by DASH.

It will see a children’s toolkit developed which includes teaching material and lesson plans for pupils in grades four to seven.

The resources will touch on physical education, health and hygiene and nutrition.

Teachers’ health will also be a key focus, with a toolkit developed to educate and empower teachers to make changes which benefit their health.

These include lifestyle coaching and the use of smart information technology.

NMU vice-chancellor Professor Derrick Swartz said poverty was still a massive problem facing certain communities.

He said he hoped the project would contain an element of psychological and mental help because they were unresolved issues in many communities.

Bay education district director Ernst Gorgonzola said it was important to ensure children reaped the benefits of physical activity.