With new data showing Pacific nations are at the forefront of the global obesity epidemic, the children of Tonga have been the focus of World Health Day activities.
With bright eyes and a dazzling smile, Anita Hufanga is a picture of good health.
So is Lusia Leaaetoa, Joseph Muavesi, Brandon Finau and most of the other hundred or so children who have escaped the driving rain and winds of Tropical Cyclone Zena to celebrate World Health Day in ’Atele Indoor Stadium in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa.
The adults of Tonga, and more broadly across the Pacific, aren’t so healthy. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes and heart disease are robbing them of the chance to see their beloved children grow up.
“According to the research, the ages of six to 12, they are the most vulnerable,” explains Palu Uhatahi, the manager of the Tonga Just Play soccer development project, the focus of World Health day activities in Tonga. “It is better for us to teach them to be active and to eat healthy food while they are still young.”
It is a wise investment because the research is confronting for the Pacific and the world. A new study published by the Lancet Medical Journal has found that Pacific nations, including Tonga, dominate World Health organisation rankings of Body Mass Index and Obesity. It's also found that for the first time in human history, there are more obese people than underweight people in the world.
Programs like Just Play, and a range of others that are part of the Australian Government’s Pacific Sports Partnership (PSP), are attacking the problem on two fronts. They offer nutritional education and instil a love of exercise that will hopefully last a lifetime. The PSP is creating generational and cultural change because, as Palu explains, overeating has become a way of life and a way of death.
“Overeating of food is having the most impact on NCDs here in Tonga because food for us is like a cultural event,” she says.
“We welcome someone, we welcome with food. We visit someone, we visit with food. It won’t be big if we don’t have food.
“People are starting to learn that eating too much food will cost their lives.”
There is anecdotal evidence she is right.
More than 500 people packed into Queen Salote Memorial Hall for a celebration of International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, sampling a dozen sports and joining a mass aerobics session. Many told stories of a personal battle with food and inactivity.
Social media reaction included comments like this from Iyanne Paongo; “It's about time, Tonga's deep rooted health problems for decades was due to the lack of access to sports activities such as this event. Glad to see Tonga getting back to healthy living.”
Aspiring goalkeeper and Just Play participant Brendan Finau says he has noticed a growing war on junk food.
“Often times, it’s my Mum,” he says.
“She never gives us any junk food. We are mostly eating vegetables or something like that.”
“Eat vegetables so you can be healthy,” declares Lusia, one of the Just Play participants.
“It’s easy.”
But it isn’t easy. Not in Tonga. Not in many places across the globe.
Nearby the stadium where Palu was teaching healthy habits, people were braving cyclonic weather to buy soft-serve ice cream at 10am. Others made a breakfast of cheap, popular, high-fat dough balls and sugary soft drink, a potentially-deadly combination over time. Palu is hopeful but cautious.
“It’s the daily habit,” she says.
“It is about our state of mind. We have to change that while we are still young.”
If Palu and others like her can achieve that through their fun but finely-tuned sports development programs, then Anita, Lusia, Joseph and Brandon might still be a picture of health when, decades from now, they bring their own children along to a sporting celebration of World Health Day.
Pic courtesy: ABC/Australia Plus