This visit takes place within the context of the panhellenic information campaign “Mission: Diabetes. You are part of the solution. Be a member of the Team!”, which has travelled to 10 regions across Greece, including Athens. Exceptional Greek athletes have supported, pro bono, the campaign: Mr. Alexandros Nikolaidis in Thessaloniki, Mr. Nikos Roumeliotis in Patra, Mr. Kostas Gkatsioudis in Alexandroupoli, Mr. Andreas Zissimos in Rethymno (Crete), Mr. George Siakkas in Serres, Mrs. Anthe Karagianni in Kavala, Mr. Nikos Mallis and Mr. George Xydas in Lesvos, Mr. Giannis Georgallis in Rhodes, Mr. Christoforos Meroussis in Chios, have created, all together, a National Diabetes Team to “win over” Diabetes.
This information program runs under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Research & Religious Affairs, the Hellenic Diabetes Association, and the Panhellenic Federation of People with Diabetes, and is organized by Agoni Grammi Gonimi, with the kind support of ELPEN.
Mr. Papaloukas inivited the students to become members of the «Diabetes» Team, to engage in their favorite sport, to become fond of healthy nutrition, but also to profit from all the positive benefits, which exercise and balanced nutrition offer to their health and personality. During his visit, the students played with Mr. Papaloukas, and discussed with him about the health benefits that systematic exercise offers. Among other things, Mr. Papaloukas highlighted that: «Sports must be a way of living for everyone, young ones and older ones. We can only gain benefits from integrating systematic exercice and balanced nutrition in our lives. When exercising, we become stronger; we are healthy and full of energy. If, as advised by physicians, we win over obesity, which is caused by sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition, then we will have offered ourselves the most valuable gift of all, since we will be helping to reduce the risk of presenting chronic diseases, like Diabetes.»
Within this context, Mr. Papaloukas delivered sports equipment to the students, such as metallic goals and 3x2 nets, hand balls, basket balls, volley balls, soccer balls and training insignia, as requested by the school.
In parallel, during the «Mission: Diabetes» program, an experiential educational game, entitled «Discovering the treasures of good health. Exercise and healthy nutrition» was carried out. The aim was to enhance the understanding of children about the importance of maintaining a normal weight, through exercise and good nutrition, so as to manage Diabetes. This game has been specifically designed by Playroom, with the scientific support of HDA. Through art and games, students learned how the human body functions, how Diabetes appears, and the ways in which we can protect our organism from serious diseases that are associated with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Using the information collected while engaging in this game, the students, as a team, created their own healthy human organism.
Informing the public about the prevention and management of Diabetes constitutes a primary goal for the scientific community, given that this disease is currently taking on epidemic proportions, counting approximately 1.200.000 patients in Greece and 350.000.000 worldwide, with 90% suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is more common in developed countries, as it is directly linked to the «western lifestyle», that is, lack of exercise, sedentary routine and unhealthy nutrition, and is one of the major causes of death globally.