FR
EN
AR
Lebanese children are getting too fat. One of the reasons is their lack of movement - no easy task to solve in a city like Beirut. One in three children in Lebanon is overweight and every 10th is obese, according to estimates by the World Health Organization. And it looks like it’s not getting any better: Over the last decade, childhood obesity has almost doubled.
The WHO identifies three main causes of becoming overweight and obese: genetics, nutrition and physical activity. It recommends that young people between the ages of 5 and 17 spend at least 60 minutes a day doing moderate-intensity activities. This can mean taking a walk instead of the car, helping with house or garden work - or jumping around on a playground, doing hopscotch, throwing a ball or playing on a swing.
Every hour that is not spent moving is spent doing something else - “and usually that will be screen time or eating,” said Tarek Gherbal, an athletics therapist at the American University in Beirut.
Lebanese children - as well as adults - don’t move enough. According to estimates by the WHO, 36 percent of the Lebanese population is “physically inactive,” which means they actually move their body properly for less than one hour per day.
The issue is not about aesthetics. “Physical inactivity is now identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality,” the WHO says. Physical inactivity leads to becoming overweight and obese, and this comes along with comorbidities such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and bone damage.
A study by the Milken Institute, a U.S.-based think tank, shows that the consequences of a population with rising obesity even have economic implications, with decreasing productivity and rising health care costs. Children who don’t move enough turn into adults who don’t move enough.
But where is there to move in Beirut? “For parents who want to get their children moving, it’s a hassle,” Gherbal said.
In this city, finding a public garden or public playgrounds for children is no easy task.
A quick search on Google shows there are places such as museums, water parks and indoor playgrounds in the city. However, these are few and far between, and require effort: The trip must be organized, the children must be accompanied and taken there by car, and often there is an entry fee. In short, these places are hardly suitable for daily activities.
“Even for people with a good income, this will add up.
“You will maybe be able to do that once a week. This is not enough,” Gherbal said. “The lack of public spaces where children can play is part of the problem. Municipalities need to channel their investments, make a bike lane or a walking-only street in your area. Obesity in Lebanon is also an infrastructure problem,” he said. “It’s about urban planning.”
“And parents need to acknowledge that it’s not good for their child to sit in a chair all day,” he added.
Playing is not only fun for children, but also essential for their development, according to pediatric findings. Playing promotes the cognitive, social, physical and emotional well-being of children and adolescents. According to UNICEF, free play - without a timetable, without goals - is essential for children’s development, even going so far as to enhance their abilities to learn faster and perform better at school.
So what to do in a city that is not packed with green spaces where children can run around freely?
One way of getting children more involved in activities in public spaces is to redesign and improve the ones that already exist.
“Ask the people,” said Joana Dabaj, an architect and urban designer and the principal coordinator at CatalyticAction, an NGO that works internationally on projects in urban spaces in order to change societies for the better. “It is vital to get the local neighborhood involved.”
Dabaj’s team was commissioned to create a new children’s play space at the Karantina public park when it was redesigned in 2016. “We did not just have a set idea on how to go about it. First, there was a lot of research involved,” she said. “This is in an area of Beirut where many people don’t trust promises. So first we had to build trust. We reached out to the local communities, which are very diverse.”
They first had to convince the neighborhood to work together. “First, we got different leaders on board to see the advantages of such a space,” Dabaj said. “Then we had to convince the parents.” Many were skeptical of letting their girls go to the park because it had been abandoned for so long. “So they didn’t view it as a safe place.”
By engaging the children as well as the parents in workshops and finding out what their needs were, the team earned the community’s trust and learned more about the neighborhood. “You cannot expect people to use something they don’t know,” she said. The creation of public spaces needs to involve the people, because they will be the ones using it, Dabaj added. “It has to be part of your own culture.”
“We need to make municipalities more aware of what’s needed in their communities,” Gherbal said.
“And we need our politicians to acknowledge how important such issues are.”
By Marguerite Meyer
Source: The Daily Star
