Flagship Program

The Challenge

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Everyone can experience the health benefits of physical activity – age, abilities, ethnicity, shape, or size do not matter.

Some benefits of physical activity on brain health occur immediately after a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Benefits include improved thinking or cognition for children 6 to 13 years of age and reduced short-term feelings of anxiety for adults. Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better. Additionally, moderate-intensity aerobic activity can put you at a lower risk for heart disease and stroke. Regular physical activity can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Further, being physically active lowers your risk for developing several commonly occurring cancers. Both diet and physical activity play a critical role in maintaining a healthy bodyweight, losing excess body weight, or maintaining successful weight loss. Physical activity can help with muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening. Regular physical activity helps with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions affecting the joints. For people with disabilities, physical activity can help support daily living activities and independence.

During Covid-19, we realized the importance of avoiding non-communicable diseases as they made you more susceptible to severe effects of Covid-19. However, during the Covid-19 lockdowns, we got less physical activity as gyms were closed and sporting activities were and still are limited in some countries. For many of us, including our children, we were forced into an even more sedentary lifestyle, and we put on some extra “Covid” pounds.

The Opportunity

This year’s flagship Initiative, “Let’s Get Moving”, seeks to get us all moving again to harness the benefits of physical activity for our children, teens, youth, and our wider societies. By utilizing a community approach, the Caribbean District’s network of clubs will seek to encouraging physical activity and promote healthy lifestyles in the Caribbean region. This initiative will encourage the Caribbean District, zones and clubs to create activities to get our Caribbean communities (with a special focus on children and young people) engaged in physical activity.

Clubs will be encouraged to organize activities to get the children and schools they work with moving. Zones will be encouraged to host walks, hikes, fun runs, aerobic sessions, and other similar activities to get members and their communities moving. Each zone will have a spotlight month to promote and execute their flagship project activities.

Project Goals

By utilizing our vast network of clubs which are already active in the many communities across the Caribbean, we expect that we can target over 100,000 children and young persons in the Caribbean region and teach them the importance of being physically active and living healthy lifestyles. The initiative will also provide opportunities for children and young persons to engage in physical activity thereby starting the process of getting them moving.

The below log frame outlines the key indicators, means of verification and risks/assumptions for the flagship project.