Health Sciences Challenges Staff and their Families to Get Fit

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UKZN’s College of Health Sciences hosted a morning of fitness challenges and games for its staff and their families in a bid to help them get fit and healthy.

The fun-filled event on the Durban Country Club beach got staff out of their cozy beds on a Saturday morning to enjoy fresh but chilly sea breezes in readiness for fun and games with loved ones and colleagues.

Participants soon discovered that beach games are not only fun, but a great way to exercise with the morning’s activities starting with a mini Olympics course followed by a popular giant sandcastle building competition at the water’s edge and a tug-of-war contest. Families competed against each other for the title of Most Fit, Most Creative and Strongest of the Day. Adult winners were presented with T-shirts and caps while children received stationery sets.

‘The event was an awesome initiative getting staff with their families to just hang out together,’ said Acting Academic Leader of Research in the School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, Dr Brenda da Gama. ‘We all got to get down and get dirty as a team, irrespective of which specific School we were from, and have fun. My family and I had a good time,’ she said.

Student counsellor, Ms Suzanne Stokes, thoroughly enjoyed the event and was one of the first to arrive ready for the challenges. ‘It was a great idea,’ she said. ‘I had tons of fun and the morning gave me, as a relative newcomer, a chance to meet many other colleagues as I still feel I don’t know everyone. The fact that it was also for families was a bonus. Seeing colleagues in a different space with their loved ones made it really special,’ added Stokes.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Busisiwe Ncama, encouraged staff to relax at the event with their families but to also join in the fun to get fit. ‘These sort of activities not only encourage a healthy lifestyle but provide a social setting where we can connect as one united family,’ she said.

Words: MaryAnn Francis