Since its creation by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in 2011, Wellness Week has served as a call for action to fight non-transmissible diseases and promote health through the generation of healthy environments. The campaign is not centered exclusively on prevention, but also supports empowerment and participation from people, building healthy communities and facilitating collaboration, while promoting health.
In 2019, as part of the campaign, PAHO urged Ministries of Health and Ministries of Education to unite their forces in order to improve the health of students and their communities in the Americas, under the theme “Creating healthy schools”.
The Latin American and Caribbean Center for Health Sciences Information (BIREME) is known for stimulating the practice of healthy lifestyle habits among its collaborators yearlong, and during Wellness Week 2019 it could not be otherwise. Two sessions of physical exercises for posture and stretching were held, oriented by Physical Education teacher Sergio F. de Carvalho and his team, within the framework of the alliance between the Center and Universidade Paulista. Also, on September 20, a very didactic talk was given by nutritionist Dr. Gisela Müller, entitled “Present-day good practices in nutrition”. Aside from giving advice on how to care for daily nutrition in and out of the house, Dr. Müller also presented a list of ingredients for a good and healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. She insisted on the importance of considering the human organism as a machine that must be kept in good functioning, and one of the elements that contribute to this is nutrition. At the end of her presentation, fresh fruit was distributed in natura for the collaborators.
According to Dr. Diego González, Director of BIREME, “with these activities, we are contributing to the health and well-being of our collaborators and their families, since they become multipliers of the knowledge. Being able to count on an engaged, hard-working and healthy team is and will be a priority of the current management”.