By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator
A healthy lifestyle is achieved by choosing to eat healthy foods and taking care of the body every day.
The choices we make for ourselves and for others can have a big impact on our lives. We need to know the choices to make so that we and our loved ones stay healthy and safe. Often in our small villages in Mali we don't think much about these choices. But by learning from each other, we can see the many ways we can help each other and what we can do to improve our health and lifestyle.
Girls prepare the “healthy” and “unhealthy” buckets for their relay race.
Our meeting this month with the girls from Girl Project was about "sport and the girl's nutritional need." We focused on connecting healthy eating with sport because Girls Project participants are serious soccer players on their school teams! Connecting their performance to healthy choices helps the girls care about the topic and engage with the learning.
After teaching the girls the importance of sport and good nutrition in their teenage lives, we made a game with the girls. The object of the game is a relay race that requires speed and a knowledge of healthy and unhealthy choices in life.
Each group had to form a single file line. We placed two buckets in front of each team, about 10 meters apart. One of the buckets is labeled "healthy" and the other "unhealthy". In these two buckets there is a set of health cards. Girls have to do a relay race. Each girl must pick up a health card, run to the bucket, and put the card in the bucket which, in her opinion, corresponds to a "healthy choice" or "unhealthy". When the card is in the bucket, the girl must join her team running and clap the girl's hand at the head of the line. Play continues until all cards are in the buckets.
When all the teams were finished, we read the cards for each group aloud, exploring which cards were placed in the "healthy" or "unhealthy" bucket. After correcting all the mistakes in choosing the health buckets, we discuss explanations so that they understand why the choice is "healthy" or "unhealthy.”
At the end of the card correction, 15-year-old Nana Doumbia, who is in grade 8 at the Diorila school, told us that she can drink more than 8 glasses of water a day. His mother always advised him not to drink as much water as it may cause him a health problem later. Her brothers also made fun of her. They told her that she drank water like a camel. Nana was in a hurry to go home to teach her mom that it is always good to drink lots of water to stay hydrated and avoid certain illnesses and also to make fun of her brothers in turn.
