| Choose a Story Position: | Story 3
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| Is this Story Active? | No
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| Category: | Events
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| Date: | 04/18/2012
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| Title: | IFMSA Educates Primary School Students on Chronic Diseases
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By Line
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Short Story
Healthy Grenada, a student group under the umbrella of International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), has embarked on a project geared at educating sixth grade students at Grand Anse R.C. School on chronic diseases with specific emphasis on diabetes. The sessions are all highly interactive and include many group activities and a physical exercise component. Adel Mazanderani, founder of Healthy Grenada, stated “We wanted to use the passion and knowledge of the SGU community to give back to the Grenadian community and raise awareness about chronic disease.”
Michaela Valenti, one of the directors of the program, commented: “We want to help the kids think more critically about what they eat and what they do. We’re trying to give them the information and empower them and direct them toward a path that would lead to a long term benefit. We’re trying to teach them so they can teach others.” The students are set to demonstrate their learning and teach others at a poster presentation carded for April 27 at SGU.
Healthy Grenada has worked with Grand Anse R.C. before and raised funds in 2011 to help the school remove, from the middle of the playing field, a large container placed there since hurricane Ivan in 2004. The group also regularly works along with the Grenada Diabetes Association and is preparing to assist them with building a database to document the number of persons suffering from Type 1 diabetes in order to fulfill a requirement that will allow the country to receive free insulin for children. Additionally, Healthy Grenada is set to meet with Ministry of Health, which has shown interest in the project, to discuss possible expansion of the project to secondary schools and other primary schools.
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Full Story
The Healthy Grenada project started after Adel Mazanderani became inspired by Dr. Valentin Fuster, keynote speaker at the 2010 Joint K.B. Taylor Memorial and Annual WINDREF Research Lecture, who emphasised the importance of targeting children in an effort to curb chronic diseases. Adel visited several schools with the help of Michelle Ash, a registered dietitian and Renel Polson-Murrell, a teacher, and also made presentations at soccer camps, with the help of Felix “Flexi” Thomas, and to parents and a church group. In 2011, Adel made a presentation to Global Health Committee, a group by Keith B. Taylor Global Scholars students, and Vivek Jayadeva, a member of that group came on board. They were soon joined by Stephanie Sun, Michaela Valenti and Shervin Shaffiy, president of IFMSA. Since then, over 30 volunteers have contributed their efforts.
To ensure the longevity of the project, Healthy Grenada ensures that all their materials and session lesson plans are well documented. The entire curriculum and all supporting materials are available online which facilitates sharing with any group who wishes to duplicate or borrow from the project. Healthy Grenada is open to all students and can be contacted via email at [email protected].
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