Higher education staff talk health

A workshop that held on September 17, 2014 in Yaounde, recommended good nutrition and regular physical exercise.

“We dig our graves with our teeth” was the take-home message delivered to staff of the Ministry of Higher Education who participated in a workshop organised on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 in Yaounde on the theme, “Quality of Life: Stakes for Professional Performance and Personal Wellbeing.”

As one of the two main speakers, the Sub-director in charge of Nutrition in the Ministry of Public Health, Georges Okala, told the participants that given the demanding working environment, a rich and balanced diet as well as sustained physical exercise play an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular accidents, stress, diabetes, osteoporosis, deficiencies and different forms of cancer that have become common nowadays.

He said all this results in infirmity and deaths, which provoke losses for institutions. Regretting that most work places are not equipped to enable personnel feed properly, he advised that every worker needs a good breakfast to enable the brain start the day, amongst other tips.

According to the head of the Unit for Monitoring of Condition of Personnel and Students, Chanty Violette Medja Ekotto, the one-day workshop aimed at placing the wellbeing of Higher Education staff at the centre of attention as illustrated by the two lectures presented.

On his part, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Higher Education, Prof. Horace Ngomo Manga, reminded the participants that the stake of the training is the putting in place of conditions enabling staff of the ministry to fully express their capacities while accomplishing tasks assigned to them.