Fat, Fatter and Fattest! Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic affecting both adults and children alike. However, the awareness of this global issue in our community is still naive, including youths and children. One of the innovative strategies to combat obesity is to seed young minds to live healthy right from the childhood and practice throughout life.
Obesity Awareness initiative “Young Minds Health Innovations” was launched recently at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). The objective of this initiative is to entice children and youth to be innovative with strategies which will help combat obesity and also to promote healthy lifestyle to children in schools.
“It is apparent that winning the battle against obesity is only possible through health awareness and educating people. Especially with the sedentary lifestyle and the increase consumption of fast food, there is a greater need to curb obesity.” Dr Suresh K. Mohankumar, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences at UNMC.
The first phase was launched with a poster competition by challenging our UNMC students “Can you creatively create a poster in combating obesity through innovation health education strategies?”
We had more than twenty entries and all exhibited fantastic innovative ideas to combat obesity and live healthy. Of note, we had more than 350 individuals participated either competing, viewing obesity awareness poster or attending exhibition.
The next phase of the project intend to spread the awareness to secondary schools within the local community.
This initiative received £1500 from Cascade grant from the University of Nottingham, Impact Nottingham, UK and ¥1 million from Tanita Healthy Weight Community Trust, Japan.
This project provides a unique platform for young minds to map and understand the importance of healthy living. Through this, we anticipate significant volume of obesity awareness thorugh active participation and peer discussions in youth and children, said Dr. Suresh.
(Thumbnail image caption: At the poster competition (from left to right) Ani Amirah Mohd Zin, Dr. Suresh, Lisa Fong Huang Chin, Deepa Kumari Veerasingam)
(Article Image Caption: from left to right: Dr Soma Mitra from the School of Biosciences specialising in Nutrition; Professor Christine Ennew, CEO and Provost of UNMC and Dr Suresh)
More information on the blog.
UNMC's 15th Anniversary
One of the world's truly global universities, with campuses in Malaysia, the UK and China, 2015 marks the 15th year since setting up as UK's first full-fledged international campus in Malaysia and all three campuses continue to enrich the lives of students across the world through global education, ground-breaking research and community engagement.
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More information is available from Dr Suresh K. Mohankumar, on sureshk.mohankumar@nottingham.edu.my; or Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications Manager on +603 8924 8746, josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my.
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for three years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future.
Posted on 11th February 2016