The Health Ministry in Collaboration with the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will host a health and wellness fair at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Friday.
Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, said several booths promoting healthy living and offering health services will be available to the public.
Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) is a regional response to the threat posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), according to the Caribbean Public Health Agency.
“It’s not just about looking at exhibits, it’s also interacting with the people who would be able to explain how to embrace a healthy lifestyle, so there will be lots to learn and I’m sure people will be surprised that you can make small and simple that can result in a big difference in terms of longevity and a healthy lifestyle,” Minister Anthony said during his COVID-19 update on Monday.
On Friday, the ministry will also sign a charter with several agencies, aimed at promoting healthier living in Guyana.
“What we are trying to do is to get more companies, more agencies, more entities understanding the concept of wellness and to get their workforce to stay well. What that means is that we want to do more of the preventative aspect, trying to prevent people from getting sick and the way that we can do that is for people to embrace a different type of lifestyle,” Dr Anthony said.
He stressed the importance of a healthy diet and reducing risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and the use of harmful drugs.
Exercise is also being encouraged, as this would help to keep the cardiovascular system active.
“There are several bad habits that we have, they include consumption of alcohol, consumption of cigarettes, we [don’t] eat the right foods, we have moved away from fresh healthy foods like vegetables and so forth, we eat a lot of fast food, we drink a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages, these contribute to diabetes and so forth so, these things we have to change them,” Dr Anthony said.
The annual event is geared at increasing awareness and promoting activities to address non-communicable diseases, as well as mental ill health.