The project “Well-being4you: Sport & Mediterranean Diet”, acronym “WB4: SMD” , has the main objective of promoting a procedure that increases the awareness of young Europeans on the importance of sport and proper nutrition, as tools that help prevent major health problems of the European youth population, specifically, by decreasing the prevalent obesity rate among young people, which is too high in the countries involved in the project and also in other European countries. The partnership of this project is composed of “Association of paraplegics, tetraplegics and physically disabled of Kavala (Grece) as the applicant, Sport Club GK KNIN (Croatia), and the Academy culture and Education Association (Turkey) as partner. The project has a duration of 12 months and it includes international staff meetings at the beginning and at the end of the project period; in addition, workshops will be held involving all the participants selected by the 3 organizations: the first are held in Croatia in May 2023 and the topic of the importance of sport for health will be dealt with; the second takes place in Greece in September of the same year and represents an interesting laboratory to discover the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and a holistic approach to food. The project carries out the activities, favoring the participation of disadvantaged people and at risk of social exclusion. The international laboratories find continuity in the creation of online laboratories, which involve all the participants in the project and which will be created to link the two international activities. The project involves young people between the ages of 6 and 15, but even older adults can benefit from the results.
More info at https://wb4ysmd.org/
Project “Well-being4you: Sport & Mediterranean Diet” aims to promote the implementation of the three pillars of the “Healthy lifestyle 4all” initiative. The Project, in fact, intends to carry out activities that favor the growth of awareness levels of a healthy lifestyle, which promotes access to sports, physical activity, and a healthy diet, favoring the participation of disabled and economically disadvantaged people and moreover, it promotes a holistic approach to food, health, well-being and sport, making young people aware of the importance of two protagonists in everyone’s life: Sport and the Mediterranean Diet. The Project stems from a reflection that the participating organizations have made about the levels of obesity of the European population of young people, the mortality rate from problems caused by obesity and the very critical results of the statistics regarding sports practiced by Europeans. From the analysis of these data, in fact, it is possible to understand that in the European countries involved in this project, but also in others, they practice sport infrequently and eat very badly, ingesting foods rich in fat and sugar. Young people should be made aware of how important it is to play sports every day and eat healthily; it is, therefore, necessary to show young people which are the principles that help to achieve physical and mental well-being, in order to prevent all the problems that derive from a bad lifestyle.
Greece and Croatia are officially recognized as countries of the Mediterranean diet, recognized as intangible cultural heritage, but, paradoxically, they are also the countries with a higher level of obese young people, probably because there is a lack of education in sport and in proper nutrition. Turkey, as we will show in the next section, has been struggling with obesity for years and the government has taken measures to prevent the resulting diseases, so immediate actions are needed to all these countries, to prevent the situation from becoming even worse. The Project, therefore, wants to implement a program characterized by theoretical and practical activities with nutritionists and sports instructors which aims to introduce young people to a new possibility: to avoid becoming obese and to face problems such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, oncological diseases, simply by immediately changing their style, therefore practicing sport every day and following a diet that brings many benefits: the holistic diet and specifically, the Mediterranean diet, knowing the products that all the countries involved have available, as they are all located on the Mediterranean Sea. The activities involve young people with disabilities and young people from economically disadvantaged contexts because the project also wants to promote the integration of these people, offering them total well-being, finding peace with the body and mind, also through inclusion and integration with other young people.
SYLLOGOS PARAPLIGIKON TETRAPLIGIKONKAI ATOMON ME KINITIKES ANAPIRIES NOMOY KAVALAS (GREECE)
GIMNASTICKI KLUB KNIN (CROATIA)
AKADEMİ KÜLTÜR VE EİTİM DERNEĞİ (TURKEY)