Western Cape Health MEC celebrates World Health Day in Bonteheuwel

The Western Cape Health Minister, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo celebrated World Health Day with a Western Cape on Wellness (WoW) Community Club in Bonteheuwel.

World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated annually. In the Western Cape, we are shining the light on the promotion of wellness in celebration of World Health Day 2018. We want to showcase the wonderful work of a community WoW group.

The Wow project, is one of the initiatives that we successfully implemented as part of our strategic goal of promoting health and wellness. We are working to expand this initiative using a whole of society approach. There has been numerous notable achievements seen in participants whose lifestyles have changed, since it was launched. This includes significant reductions in their blood pressure, noteworthy improvements in healthy eating and an increase in their general health status.

“That is why I went to Bonteheuwel today, to visit the Bonteheuwel Walking Ladies to showcase the wonderful collaboration between a Wow community group and the department. It is important to showcase how these Walking Ladies mobilized members of the community to take responsibility for their health. Their activities target the contributing factors toward non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. This speaks directly to our goal of increasing wellness amongst all communities.” said Minister Mbombo

The Bonteheuwel Walking Ladies are led by a very passionate and driven lady, Soraya Salie. This group consist of over 100 people and is life changing for most members. Not only do they provide a wellness opportunity for ladies, they also provide a safety net for women. They are socially connected, and this ultimately empowers them.

This group celebrated their 10^th anniversary last year and is a registered WoW community group. They received the WoW Gold Award out of 60 community clubs in the Western Cape. Their focus is on mothers and grandmothers who seek to inspire the youth by being positive role models for a future generation leaders.

“This group is a perfect example of what we aim to achieve through our whole of society approach. We want to increase wellness and safety, and tackle socials ills. We want to provide communities with equitable access to services and opportunities, through the alignment of resources, collaboration and partnership by all spheres of government as well as communities”.

Gone are the days of just curing diseases, communities need to play an active role in their own health and wellbeing.

I would like to commend these ladies for the sterling work in promoting wellness in the Bonteheuwel community.