By Francis Quamina Farrier

THE Rotary Club of Garden City, which is the most recent Rotary Club to have been launched in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, has set itself a far-reaching objective. The club is focusing on keeping Guyanese children slim and healthy. Together with District 7030 Childhood Obesity Prevention Committee, this new Rotary Club has launched a handbook on healthy eating for children. The handbook was written by Remire Montjoly of French Guiana. The illustrations within the handbook are by another Rotarian of French Guiana, Diego.

The Guyanese club have expressed gratitude to their French counterparts for this project. Described as being “Creatively written,” the book which is entitled, “Eat Well, Move Well,” provides pre-teens and early teenagers with simple but technically sound guide to healthy eating and exercise. During the past century and earlier, Guyanese ate more home-cooked meals, along with fresh meats, fish, provisions, vegetables, fruits and greens. That has been reduced to some extent in more recent years, in preference to consuming fast foods.

In the past, Guyanese also exercised naturally, much more: Walking, running and riding were regular daily activities. Washing clothes by hand in a tub with a scrubbing board, was strenuous exercise. There was also the system using a beating board to get dirt out of clothes and pounding green, boiled plantains in a mortar to make foo-foo, was exercise. Even the churning action to make ice cream, gave the opportunity for exercise. So too, cutting wood for the fireside and other similar activities. Back in the previous century, a much higher percentage of Guyanese engaged in such means of natural exercise, which helped to keep them in shape and not become over-weight and obese.

The current increase of overweight and obese citizens of Guyana, especially children, has been observed by the Rotary Club of Garden City, which is one of the newest Rotary Clubs here in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, which is about to celebrate 55 years of independence. Together with District 7030 Childhood Obesity Prevention Committee, that Rotary Club recently announced the launch of a Healthy Eating children’s English version handbook. It was authored by Rotarian Valentin Marie from the Rotary Club of Remire Montjoly in French Guiana, and illustrated by Rotarian Diego. “We remain grateful to our French Club.” the Guyana Rotary Club announced in a recent statement.

Chief Librarian Emily King, of the National Library in Georgetown, received 50 copies of the book from the Rotary Club of Garden City. Those copies have been placed in the Juvenile section of the Public Library in Georgetown. Other copies are also in the library’s Bookmobiles and out-district public library centres. The objective is to have a drastic reduction of overweight and obese Guyanese children as the country moves beyond 55 years of independence.

With the year-long lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and children getting so much less time to engage in physical games, it has now become even more important to go by the recommendations put forward in this book.