Dominican University, Ibadan has stormed Lagos in a walkaton focused on creating awareness about healthy living choices.
The event, which kicked off at Periwinkle Estate Junction started with dance, aerobics with the theme ‘A walk for the Nation’.
Rev. Augustine Ebido, member of the school’s Board of Trustees and director of its education foundation, said the initiative was a wonderful experience.
”The inspiration behind this walk is personal because since I came back after COVID, I began to see signs, a lot of deaths. Young people dying. I have buried so many young people as a priest, it breaks my heart and there is no statistics”.
He added: “There is no way to find out what is the reason for this. I am not talking about older people dying. I am talking about young people dying. We need to know that each one of us can do something to build a better country.”
“Government alone”, he stressed “cannot do everything for us. We forget that we are agents of change for our country.
“Somebody is not going to build it for us, we will build it ourselves. So, the university thought that there is something we can do as an institution to create awareness for our people.”
If young people are dying and many don’t know the reason why they are dying, it is better to follow reasonable cause of action like exercise. “They have proven to be very helpful to prolong life and help your cardiovascular health. I personally feel that much of this deaths have simple cholesterol problems because many of them are either heart attack or stroke”.
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Making exercises a routine, he opined will help to reduce the risk and prolong lives. “As an institution when we do something like this it becomes more important and no longer a joke. Of course, the university was founded for academic excellence and character formation. It is a catholic university but opened to everyone “.
Chinwe Iloghalu, the Executive director, Corporate Banking at Polaris Bank and Chairperson of the walk-at-on talked about the vision and mission of the walk and expected overall impact.” We are here to have a fund raising event and promote healthy living. The theme is A walk for healthy Nation. We all know the importance of healthy living, the essence of well being. We are here to promote that and at the same time raise funds for the university. It is a new university, set up by the Dominican brothers. We also have the responsibility to create awareness. It is a foremost education institution and the Catholic Church has been in the forefront of promoting education at all levels. We think that the walk is well timed because our students are preparing for the new Session”.
On his part, Chinedu Anazodo, Head marketing Grand Cereal and Pure Soya oil, healthy living is the way to go. “A good life starts with healthy living and what you put into your body. You have to be mindful of what is used to prepare the food. That is where we come in as a company. Our products are Soya based and arguably one of the best soya oils. It is rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6.Omega 3 is good for your heart and helps to bring your blood pressure down. Omega 6 helps with the skin and bone growth. We also enforce with Vitamin A.”