GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – One in every three children in the Caribbean is overweight or obese and this figure is growing. October 11 marked World Obesity Day (WOD).
WOD was established in 2015 by the World Obesity Federation. The day was established to focus on building awareness about the global epidemic of obesity which threatens to take stranglehold on developing nations who are already failing abysmally in preventing and controlling the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) crisis.
On the occasion, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), a regional network of Caribbean health Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations committed to combating NCDs and their associated risk factors and conditions, launched the “Civil Society Action Plan 2017-2021: Preventing Childhood Obesity in the Caribbean.”
The Collective Prevention Services (CPS) salutes HCC with respect to the launch, adding that all health related organs whether public or private has one goal in mind to prevent childhood obesity.
HCC membership consists of more than 65 Caribbean-based health NGOs and over 55 not-for-profit organizations and, in excess of 200 individual members based in the Caribbean and across the globe.
Childhood obesity is the canary in the coal mine – forewarning a health crisis affecting entire generations and frustrating the development of our already vulnerable states. Childhood obesity is a social justice issue which requires decisive structural change which protects the basic right to health owed to our children.
Civil society has a pivotal role to play in contributing towards supporting and structuring public-private partnerships to implement and support policy and legislative environment, according to the recommendations of HCC in preventing and managing childhood obesity.