Anambra Firstlady Inaugurates 100 Secondary Students as Healthy Living Ambassadors

By Praise Chinecherem

Anambra governor’s wife, Dr. (Mrs) Nonye Soludo, has flagged off the second phase of the Healthy Living Organice Garden Programme for communities and secondary schools in the state.

The ceremony, which was held in Awka, also saw the inauguration of Healthy Living Ambassadors who would Healthy Living School Club activities with 100 selected secondary schools in Anambra State.

The projects are all driven by the governor’s wife Healthy Living programme, with the vision of integrating a culture of healthy and purposeful lifestyle among the people.

In her address during the event, Mrs Soludo explained that the Healthy Living Garden Programme is targeted at getting the students early in life, to embrace agriculture, imbibe hard work, and love charity.

“The students can achieve this by recognizing the importance of maintaining a garden from where they would get common staple crops needed daily in the family,” she added.

Soludo’s wife also spoke of the Pad Bank initiative launched two years ago in schools by her NGO, regretting that the schools have not maximized the gains of such initiative.

Inaugurating the school ambassadors, Mrs Soludo said that they have been carefully selected because of their capacities, appealing to the principals of the schools to lend consistent support to the Ambassadors.

She noted that it was really important to keep emphasizing that healthy living is a crucial way of life.

“Our relationship with the body will ultimately define what it gives back. If you feed it well, it gives you wellness. If you feed it badly, it gives you sickness.

“Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo is designed to give every student a platform to succeed.

“Each club member carries an identity of difference and that each member of the club must stick to its foundational norms, always.

Earlier, Chairman of Anambra State Post Primary Schools Service Commission (PPSSC), Prof Nkechi Ikediugwu, said the launch of the initiatives by Mrs Soludo speaks to her commitment to the welfare, growth and development of the Anambra child.

Acknowledging immense benefits that can be derived from the initiatives, Ikediugwu said starting early to equip the students with such knowledge and ideologies will ensure that they grow into responsible and healthy adults.

She further expressed appreciation to the governor’s wife for the recruitment of blind teachers into the Commission.

“The Commission today has 28 blind teachers who are teaching in schools in the state,” she added.

In their separate remarks, Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike, and his Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs counterpart, Mr TonyCollins Nwabunwanne said the initiatives were designed to touch lives from the grassroots.

“With their meticulous implementation, a whole lot of things going wrong in the families and the society will be corrected,” they added.

The school principals received agricultural support, sanitary pads to start their Pad banks, and other essentials for their schools during the event.

Some of them expressed gratitude to Mrs Soludo and the State Government, promising to give their best to ensure the success of the initiatives.

The Commissioner for Education, Professor Ngozi Chuma-Ude, Chairman of Idemili South Local Government Area, Mrs Amaka Obi, State Woman Leader of APGA, Mrs Esther Onyekesi, were at the event.