World Health Day falls on 7th of April every year and this year, the day marks a celebration to show appreciation and thanks to our team of nurses and midwives for their hard work and contribution in the global medical and healthcare industry.
Appropriately, these health workers play a crucial role in responding and battling the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, in conjunction of making this year’s World Health Day the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, the World Health Organisation (WHO) have partnered up with many other organisations in aim to strengthen our dedicated teams of nurses and midwives in their struggle of health promotion, disease prevention, and delivering primary and community care.
Due to the pandemic, one of the ways to support our team of healthcare providers and workforce is to stay at home and remain vigilant by practising good personal hygiene habits to curb the spread of the virus.
Instilling awareness among our children regarding the current situation is also important to ensure that they fully comprehend the severity of the situation and take the necessary precautions on their own.
One of the ways to celebrate this year’s World Health Day is to educate and enlighten your children on the importance of maintaining good health and the significance of every healthcare worker such as doctors and nurses to ensure peacefulness and safety of our community.
Here are more ways to honor World Health Day with your children at home:
1- Real Healthcare Heroes
The first thing that you can do is to explain to your children about the roles and contributions of each healthcare worker to ensure that your children recognize the team of doctors, nurses, midwives and many more as essential to a community.
Most children might have overlooked that there are REAL heroes around them, not just fictional ones that they see on television or in the movies. These real heroes are the front liners that dedicate their life in ensuring the safety of our lives and homes.
Talk about these heroes with your children and maybe, insert a fun role play activity where they can dress up and play pretend as their favourite doctors and nurses at home.
2- Health Awareness
You can also elaborate to your children about the importance of maintaining good health by practising good hygiene habits, healthy diet, and regularly exercising. Show your children the proper way to wash their hands using soap and water. This can actually be quite a fun activity with your children.
You can also talk about the food pyramid and teach your children about the different categories of food and why each category must be consumed in healthy and appropriate portions.
Other than that, you and your children can do some exercising at home. There are many kinds of exercises to choose from, if you want to go slow – you can do yoga but if your children feel like doing something fun and upbeat – zumba is the perfect choice.
3- Donate to the Needy
During this trying time, hospitals are very much in need of your donations to support the large number of patients that they receive due to this pandemic. There are many ways to contribute in terms of monetary help, food donations, or even medical supplies such as gloves and face masks are encouraged to be given as donations.
You can talk to your children about the significance and benefits of donating and encourage them to work together with you to collect the necessary items that you wish to donate. Provided by Vulcan Post, here is a list of charities and fundraising efforts that you and your children can consider contributing to:
- #KitaBantuKita: Bantu Jiran Kita
- Caremongering Malaysia
- Love Your Neighbor Penang
- NGO Hub Emergency Fund
- Pit Stop Community Cafe
- Rakyat Tolong Rakyat
- Rumah Kita
- Refuge for the Refugees
- SESO Malaysia
- The Lost Food Project
- Free Meals for Frontliners
- 3D Printing Malaysia Community for COVID 19
- Covid19 Appeal: Hospitals In Sabah Need Your Help
- COVID-19 Support Fund by 100% Project
- FV Covid19 Support Fund
- KKM established fund
- Malaysia COVID-19 Charity Drive
- Projek WAQAF Mercy Malaysia
- Projek Wawasan Rakyat x Kiddo Care
- Relate for MOH Frontliners
- Tabung Penutup Mulut & Hidung, Pembersih Tangan & Keperluan Lain Untuk Wartawan Lapangan
4- At Home Science Experiments
Perhaps a more laid back yet fun celebration can be done through science experiments! The ALFA and Friends Spark kit provides you with science experiments that can be carried out easily at home with your children.
You don’t even need to go out and risk endangering your family with the virus to get the materials needed to do a science experiment at home. The Spark kit also comes with a STEM comic book to teach your children on the scientific theories before applying them onto the experiments.
One of the issues of the Spark Kit teaches your children the importance of good hygiene habits which comes together with a kit to make your own slime soap at home! You can connect this concept of this experiment with the current situation by emphasizing the importance of using soap when washing our hands to ensure no virus and bacteria are left lingering on our hands after washing them.
5- Sports Day at Home
Sports activities are also a good way to celebrate World Health Day by placing emphasis on the benefits of an active lifestyle in efforts to maintain good health. Although we are not allowed to go outdoors, there are many sports activities that can be carried out safely indoors for children such as hallway bowling, animal races, freeze dance, and even hopscotch.
If you have the funds, you can invest in balancing beams to create an indoor obstacle course for your children. These balancing beams are also safe and easy to organise and stack up for storing after use.
6- Spread Awareness Online
Social media is a very powerful platform to spread awareness effectively and quickly. Tell your kids to create something, maybe a drawing, a painting, a craft, to show what World Health Day means to them.
This year’s tagline for World Health Day is “Support Nurses and Midwives”, therefore, you can also encourage your children to incorporate this strong message into their creative creations. Your only job is to take a picture of their creations and post them on a social media platform that you use, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook or anywhere else, it doesn’t matter and hashtag #worldhealthday to spread awareness among your followers, family, and friends through a simple yet meaningful effort to commemorate World Health Day in the comfort of your home.
That’s all, make sure you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy this World Health Day!
