Africa Heart Beat: Combining Culture and Sports to Create HealthAwareness

摘要

This paper describes the approach used by an oilfield service company to combine local culture and sportingactivities to increase health awareness among its workforce in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.Using thisapproach resonated with the participants to actively engage them in a wellness initiative entitled AfricaHeart Beat.A health walk and run event was organized for employees and their family members with the aim ofincreasing health awareness not just at work but also at home.Simultaneous events were held in various locations across the Sub-Saharan Africa region.Employeesand their families walked,ran,played football and also participated in yoga,cardio exercises,boxing,a100m sprint and other fun sporting activities.To increase the engagement of the participants,the event was given a local culture theme centered aroundthe preferred musical instrument of Africa: the drum.The Africa Heart Beat event featured drummersdressed in traditional African attire.Associating the initiative with African drums and traditional dance groups energized the participants.Over 1,200 people took part in the running and walking activities,collectively covering a distanceof 7000km.Participant's feedback indicated appreciation of the cultural theme.The Africa Heart Beatcampaign was embraced by the workforce much more than a one-off health initiative as the event wasregarded as a celebration of African culture.The campaign raised awareness on the benefits of stayingfit and resulted in locations continuing to hold monthly fitness activities such as employees creating theirown walking and running groups.This initiative has had a sustained positive impact on the wellness of theemployees as well as benefiting workplace morale.This paper describes how health initiatives celebrating local culture can be used to raise awareness onthe importance of fitness and engage employees and their families in wellness initiatives.