At the Probitas Foundation we are fully aware that the health of students comes from the balance between body and mind, in line with the mythical Latin quote mens sana in corpore sano. We work so that Spanish schoolchildren are no longer among the countries with the highest rates of overweight (3rd) and obesity (4th), according to a study carried out by the European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) that has covered 33 countries of the European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO).

This concern has materialised in the School Health Program under the name of Healthy Project. 195 children and adolescents have benefited from this initiative, carried out at the Santiago Apóstol School in Valencia. Through this project, 129 Health Education workshops have been carried out and 5,732 health consultations have been attended during this school year.

Physical activity, one of the three pillars in the Healthy Project

The Healthy Project wants to improve the general health status of the centre's students and is articulated through three pillars, one of which is physical activity and sport as elements of socialisation. This pillar is complemented by the preparation of balanced and quality menus that are served at the school.

Vicente David García García, a member of the Healthy Project and sports coordinator, has been working on this initiative for two years at the Santiago Apóstol School in Valencia. According to his experience, “we are very satisfied with the results obtained. Under the premise that every minute counts, we encourage students to practice physical activity every day and we help the youngest students to overcome their fears in the infant stage (from P3 to P5), to turn them into autonomous motor skills people when they go to primary school”.

This School Health Project is based on trust in the student and works through a broad educational proposal (food, psychomotricity, studies and socialisation through sport).

Thanks to the three pillars on which the Healthy Project is based - health care and health education, promotion of physical activity and sport and nutritious and balanced diet- overweight has been reduced by 10% and obesity by 3.3% in schoolchildren at this centre from Valencia.