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September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
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- Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signs the proclamation declaring September as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. (Erwin Encinares)
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- Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, right, listens to Seoni Camacho, left, read the proclamation declaring September as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month as Miles Borja, center, waits for his turn to read the proclamation. (Erwin Encinares)
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres proclaimed September as the Childhood Obesity Awareness Month last Friday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium to address the growing health issues in the CNMI.
The proclamation was made to encourage children to be more physically active with various programs throughout the month. The “Let’s Move Marianas! Yengyung with the Kangkung” is the local CNMI version of the “Let’s Move! Campaign” that spread throughout the U.S.
Let’s Move Marianas Campaign chair Amber Mendiola shares that non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are steadily increasing among the younger generations.
“What we’re finding is that a lot of people are developing non-communicable diseases at a very early age,” said Mendiola. “We have individuals as young as 19 years old that are going through dialysis and it started at daycare and the like.”
Mendiola said that the goal of the Let’s Move Marianas Campaign is to educate the community and at least get the children active for their own welfare.
“What we’re trying to do, as a committee as a whole and an alliance is we’re trying to tackle that issue in whatever way we can, through education, policy implementation, and through engaging the community,” said Mendiola.
Becky Robles, NCD Bureau administrator, shares that another goal of the Let’s Move Marianas Campaign would be for the children to figure out what they like to do in the field of sports.
“Different partners come together and offer different physical fitness or exercise stations. This could be somebody learning soccer, going through an obstacle course, just various stations that kids can go through throughout the day,” said Robles. “To give them ideas of what physical activities are, as well as just to try it.”
