‘Seyx30: En Nouvo Style’ pilot project launched |19 September 2014

The ‘Seyx30: En Nouvo Style’ pilot project was launched in a ceremony yesterday at the Pointe Larue secondary school.

The ceremony was attended by the principal secretary for youth, Alain Volcère, Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) chief executive Vicky Van der Westhuizen, director for secondary schools Veronique Figaro, head teacher of Pointe Larue secondary school Gina Labiche, Miss Seychelles … Another World 2014 Camilla Estico as well as members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), other invitees and students of the school.

The school’s head teacher said this project will help promote a healthier lifestyle among the pupils of the school while also helping to reduce obesity.

“We do have a number of students who are dealing with such issues as obesity, and this project will help towards not only getting them to lose weight, but also to encourage them to live a healthier lifestyle,” she said.

She added that such activities will also help in boosting the students’ academic performances as they will help with their concentration in the classrooms.

The project will see the involvement of secondary one and four (S1 and S4) students of Pointe Larue, and they will have 30 minutes of various physical activities from Monday to Friday after school hours. The activities include aerobics and zumba sessions that will be run by Williana Dubois and Dorothy Isidore, walking and jogging coordinated by athletes of the Top Racers athletics club and their coach Anna Barra, and other activities that will be run by the Juniors basketball team members.

The ‘Seyx30: En Nouvo Style’ project is also being backed by Miss Seychelles … Another World Camilla Estico, whose project as the winner of the national beauty pageant is based on fighting obesity.

“Exercise is fun, it should not be a burden,” she said. “On the contrary, exercise helps us to socialise and build friendships. If you give the maximum effort in your exercise, you will be rewarded in the end,” she said.

She also congratulated the various partners who are working on this project for their effort in bringing it to fruition.

Students taking part in the project have also been given T-shirts which they will wear during the activities. The T-shirts were presented to the school’s head teacher by Alister Arnephy, a representative of Mahe Design & Build company who designed them.

A Pointe Laruen secondary school student, Chloe Edmond, delivered a vote of thanks on behalf of the school, where she expressed gratitude to the partners who have made this project possible.

“We thank the various partners for the opportunity bestowed us to be the very first school to take part in such a project,” said Chloe.

The youth department, SNYC, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the National Sports Council (NSC) are the partners working on the project, along with their sponsors.

The pilot project will last until December of this year and if successful it will then be implemented in other schools across the country.

S. N.