Fitness drive at Naps

A FITNESS drive at Naparima College is among the projects by more than 300 students participating in the WE Schools Leadership Conference. The conference was held yesterday at the Banquet and Conference Centre, MovieTowne, Port of Spain and is a collaboration between Toronto-based WE Charity and RBC Royal Bank.

Thirteen year-old Arion Babwah and 12 year-old Sierra Ragbir, both Form Two students of Naparima College, is implementing a project this year to reverse physical inactivity among students at the school. They are planning to have fitness drive, courses and lecturers. Ragbir said people who are physically inactive tend to have more stress and do not do as well in school.

“So we thought this was a major issue because when get older and you are not really involved in physical activity you could get cardiac diseases and heart attacks. These are major issues not just for now as we are students but for the future when we grow and become adults.” He said it was empowering to have children helping out communities and people who are less fortunate.

Marsha Doucette, WE Charity director national partnerships, said the WE Leadership Conference has students come up with a plan to take action on local and global issues that they care about. “And most importantly they are going to be learning the leadership skills they need to take back to their schools and their communities to really prosper and take action on volunteerism.”

She said the students come up with the projects themselves and issues that have been tackled include the environment, youth violence and cyber bullying. She explained they will take the issues and bring them to their WE Volunteer programme.