By Yunus S Saliu
Taken into consideration the importance of health in life, a Walk 4 Health – Kartong chapter was Saturday launched in Kartong village, West Coast Region.
The launching of the Walk 4 Health team was held at Halahin Eco Lodge in Kartong village.
Shortly after the launching, the team walked from Halahin beach in Kartong to Gunjur fishing point and back to Kartong, and thereby covered about 13kilometres.
Walk 4 Health – Kartong chapter was initiated in September 2020 by few people with the purpose of encouraging people to take exercise as part of their daily activities for their wellbeing.
In his remarks, Lamin Jarjou, coordinator of Walk 4 Health – Kartong said the best form of exercise for all age categories is walking and the group was set up purposely to encourage people engage in walking exercise for good health.
He disclosed that they were inspired to set up the team by the Walk 4 Health – Brikama chapter after they celebrated their one year walking anniversary in Brikama town.
“Brikama chapter was the inspiration for setting up this group in Kartong because when they organized their one year anniversary they invited us and we were impressed with their wellbeing.”
With different activities in offing, he said soon they would invite a professional walking group from Brikama and other places to always come to join the group during their Saturdays exercise.
“We always converge at Halahin Eco Lodge to prepare ourselves psychologically for the beach walking exercise every Saturday and as well refreshing,” he added.
“Among us we are having senior citizens both retirees and active civil servants from different institutions such as Nawec, Ministries of education, environment, GCAA, UNESCO, Permanent Secretaries, school health teachers and some aged people in the village that always like to seize the opportunity of exercise to stretch bodies,” he noted.
Majority of the people, he said, live in Kartong while others come every Saturday to join the group from Gunjur and Brikama – as they got no beach (Brikama).
Buba Jaiteh, proprietor of Halain Eco Lodge who is also a pioneer member of the Walk 4 Health – Kartong highlighted on the significance of the walking exercise.
He used himself as a good example saying prior joining the group he used to have body pains but walking exercise was recommended to him by someone and since then, he said he is pain free.
Another reason for joining the group, he said, it brings people together to share good moment together and discuss important issues from the past, present as reference to plan for the future.
“More so walking exercise is something that can give you good health without seeing a doctor, and the more distance you cover the healthier you become and with Walk 4 Health, we can all live healthier in a healthy community,” he added.
Momodou Mbaye Jabang, Permanent Secretary – Ministry of Environment, also one of the pioneer members, encouraged everyone to change their lifestyles to live a better life.
“There is tendency that our lifestyles are becoming sedentary as many people are confined to sitting in front of television set from breakfast till dinner time and from there go to bed without any time for exercise, sweating or burning out calories from the body,” he noted.
Therefore, he said, walking short or long distances can be helpful to the body and improve your health.
“Since we started few months ago, we have taking it upon ourselves every weekend to walk a minimum of 5, or 7 kilometers but today after the official launching we broke the record as we walked about 13kilometers – from Kartong all the way to Gunjur and back to Kartong. And our next target is to as well break this record again,” he added.