Developing Healthy and Creative Citizens
DHCC4Kidz
| Project Overview |
The last 20 years have seen a dramatic change in the way society communicates and interacts, and many of these changes are proving to have a negative impact on current and future generations. Children are at risk of making unhealthy life choices due to lack of information and intervention from parents or teachers. Children aged 5 to 16 spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen compared to around three hours in 1995, according to research studies. Teenagers spend even longer, averaging eight hours. Eight-year-old girls spend the least (three and a half hours), according to the study. Screen time is made up of time spent watching television, playing game consoles, using a mobile phone, computer or tablet. Apart from health issues, spending a quarter of the day on the Internet also raises many security concerns such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content, sexual exploitation, fraud, etc. Our profession now demands that we support parenthood in order to address these issues. So we need to develop professional-class strategies to bring about change. Our project intends to do this by introducing and refining a series of six activities that support students in key areas of their health and well-being. Students will engage in activities that positively promote physical health, mental well-being, healthy eating, entrepreneurship, online safety, and improved classroom behavior. Each country will be responsible for one activity by creating protocols and resources for use by other partners. These activities have been tailored to the strengths and experience of participating countries in each country. We anticipate that the impact of the proposed activities will result in an improvement in the mental and intellectual capacities of the students. The six schools involved have varied experiences to contribute to the project. We are also proud that our project involves the direct participation of approximately 1500 students, 15% of whom can be described as students with “fewer opportunities” in one respect or another.
