Kaigen Hin’gamaa: Nutrition and healthy lifestyles

Once upon a time, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) were something to worry about later in life – a health concern for older people.

Increasingly, however, NCDs affect children and young people around the world. And in Maldives. These days, NCDs, such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic respiratory disease are health concerns for children and young people now.

The good news: Many NCDs are preventable. Children and young people – and their families – can take steps in their daily lives to protect their health now and for the future.

Let’s go!

UNICEF Maldives provides a push in the direction of healthy lifestyle with its Kaigen Hin’gamaa flagship.

Translated literally from Dhivehi, Kaigen Hin’gamaa means ‘let’s eat and walk’ – a great start to making healthy lifestyle choices.

But Hin’gamaa can also mean, let’s go! And that is exactly the message UNICEF Maldives hopes to drive home with this flagship initiative: Let’s go on a path to eating well, staying active and protecting our health!

In specific, Kaigen Hin’gamaa focuses on four actions:

1. Eat well

Many children and young people in Maldives deal with the triple burden of malnutrition – stunting and wasting; overweight and obesity; and micronutrient deficiency. Overweight and obesity, in particular, is increasingly becoming a challenge for many children and young people. With this flagship initiative, UNICEF Maldives draws attention to the role of families and societies in setting standards about what children and young people eat. By working with school and healthcare systems, UNICEF Maldives hopes to promote healthy eating habits throughout Maldives.

2. Be active

Physical activity can boost physical and mental health. Even in small doses. To raise awareness and encourage exercise, UNICEF Maldives organizes running and walking events and sports activities in communities and advocates for safe spaces for exercise including public beaches, parks and walkways.

3. Stop smoking. Better, yet – don’t start.

This two-tiered approach is the backbone of UNICEF Maldives’ efforts to curtail smoking throughout the country. UNICEF Maldives advocates for antismoking awareness in school-based health programmes. And we hold interactive sessions with children and young people to help them resist peer pressure. In addition, UNICEF Maldives promotes an increase in smoke-free spaces and encourages strict enforcement of laws that control the sale of tobacco products under the country’s Tobacco Control Act.

4. Clean environment

Safe and healthy foods need to be grown and handled in safe environments. Pesticides and plastics are known to contaminate food, and poor hygiene in homes, restaurants and public spaces can make foods unsafe. Collaborating with international partners, UNICEF Maldives will support the monitoring pesticide use and advocates for safe food handling.

With the Kaigen Hin’gamaa flagship, UNICEF envisions a Maldives where children and young people eat healthy foods, participate in physical activities, are smoke free and live in a safer, cleaner environment.