Right in the centre of the road they watched the country’s vice president Aja Dr Isatou Njie Saidy- walking up the distance from the Total petrol station to Ebou Town Junction.
Flanked by cabinet ministers Alieu Jammeh, Banjamin Roberts, Ousman Sonko and Mayor Yankuba Colley among others, the vice president kick started this year’s Sports for Health programme by shedding off some calories herself with some thirty minutes of walking.
At the main venue at Serekunda West Park, she commended the Ministries of Sports and Health for coming up with this brilliant idea. She added that the welfare of the workers remains a primary interest of President Jammeh himself. Dr Njie Saidy invoked the age -old wise saying that a healthy mind resides only in a healthy body.
The Chairman of the Organising Committee of the event, Lamin King Colley of the National Sports Council, NSC said there is now a firm conviction that it’s only with an active and a healthy populace that any nation can collectively, as a people, reach the destination it desires for itself.
“Being physically active opens up many opportunities for our general wellbeing in all directions. Our mental alertness; physical health; economic wealth; social cohesion; stress level; productivity level; and many others, all improve positively as a result of being physically active. Simple things like walking around in the yard, in the neighbourhood and helping at the domestic level can all help to free the mind and exercise the body,” he said.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Alieu Jammeh welcomed and thanked the vice president for gracing the occasion and showing a good example that inspired a lot of people and gave good meaning to the Sports For Health programme. Other speakers included a representative from the WHO. The three-day event then got down to business with aerobic displays, football, volleyball and athletics events which went into the finals as we went to press last night. There were also free medical tests and advice for high blood pressure and diabetics conditions.
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