With the aim of raising awareness about healthy living and how persons can help in the fight of non-communicable disease, Petra Organisation, through the Ministry of Health, had put together a football tournament, which was won by Santos ‘A’ who defeated St Pius Primary 2 – 1 in the finals.

The sweltering heat didn’t stop the football hungry youths from flooding the venue which is located adjacent to the Ministry of Health headquarters in Georgetown and after a pep talk from Dr. James Hospedales (Executive Director of The Caribbean Public Health Agency) the four team tournament was officially kicked off.

In the first game, St Pius Primary, the team that shot to stardom after playing undefeated in last year’s COURTS Pee Wee football tournament, defeated Santos ‘B’ on penalty kicks while Santos ‘A’ squad, edged Rasville 1 – 0.

In the final, however, Santos ‘A’ and St Pius played to an exciting finish, with the game going into extra time where the eventual winners had to depend on a last second extra time goal from Dellon Niles to claim victory.

Bernard Nurse (Santos ‘A’) was adjudged the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).

Commenting on the day’s activity, Marlon Cole, Co-Director of the Petra Organisation, said that the event was very important in spreading the word of healthy living and pointed out that doing it through the youths is a way of not only safeguarding their future, but also saving the lives of our next generations of athletes.

“Me being a functionary within the Ministry of Health, it’s important that I help in whatever way to help promote healthy living. It’s scary that eight out of every 10 people in a room have some form of non-communicable disease and most of them are ignorant to it as well, so spreading the word through our youths is important. Telling them from an early age what to do and how to eat will go a long way,” Cole said.

The CARICOM Heads at a ‘Summit on Chronic Diseases’ in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, September 2007, established Caribbean Wellness Day.

Caribbean Wellness Day is observed every year on the second Saturday of September. Inaugurated in 2008, Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) is an annual event which provides an opportunity to increase the awareness of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden in the Caribbean; mobilise and strengthen public, private, and civil society partnerships for NCDs; promote multi-country, multi-sectoral activities in support of wellness; and showcase national and community level activities to promote healthy living and encourage residents to develop good health practices.

The first four years, 2008-2011, focused on raising awareness of Caribbean Wellness Day at the national, regional and international levels.

In 2012, a decision was taken to focus on preventing and controlling NCDs throughout the life course during 2012-2015. Caribbean Wellness Day observance was to be integrated into national NCDs Programmes to ensure sustainability.