New Zealand has the third highest obesity rate in the world, and being part of these statistics is only getting worse. Children cannot be held responsible for their obesity but parents and whanau need to protect them from the obesogenic environment. Eighty percent of obese children will become obese adults. Te Hiku Hauora is committed to actively encouraging our community and whanau to eat healthy nutrition and be physical active.
This year being recipients of the Community Grant Scheme given by the Health Promotion Agency has provided an opportunity for our early childcare centres, whanau and wider community to get involved and encourage our tamariki to be active and learn new skills.
We will hold a Tamariki/ Mokopuna Korikori Day for pre-schoolers on Thursday 30th November from 10am till 1pm at Arnold Rae Park Kaitaia, where there will be 10 stations of preschool physical activities for tamariki and whanau to participate in. For the purposes of this project, tamariki will be defined as children 5 years of age or under.
All 10 activities will be able to be replicated at home by whanau. They will be easy to understand and not require any special equipment or resources, such as playing stuck in the mud. Two of the stations will focus on traditional Maori activities which can be easily be played at home. “Sit Less, Move More, Sleep Well and Active play” is the theme for this year event. As whanau move round each station they will receive a stamp on their “day pass” for each station.
Early childhood centres will receive our registration forms to get an indication of which centres are participating and numbers in attendance, an open community invitation will also go out to capture any whanau not currently engaged with an early childhood centre. This will be promoted through the Te Hiku Hauora Facebook Page and local Happenings Facebook pages. To register please contact Lisa Deans at lisad@hauora.net.nz or 0800 808 4024
Giveaways will be branded with the “Sit Less, Move More, Sleep Well & Active Play” message to provide constant reminder to whanau about the day and how they can continue to implement active play into their everyday lives.
Healthy kai and water will be available for whanau on the day, so that we can display healthy nutritious kai which is also fast, easy and affordable and correctly portioned sized for pre-schoolers. All kai will be provided at no cost to participants of the day.
Whanau will be given a chance to engage with kaimahi at the event to better increase understanding of being active, reducing screen time and tamariki getting enough sleep. A pamphlet will be given out to whanau and centres to utilise and reinforce learnings from the day.
We will be focusing on whanau who live in the Te Hiku region and encouraging Maori whanau to participate.
