Caravan of Fun to spread the word on good health

Aboriginal training organisation Tauondi College is hitting the road to help prevent chronic disease in Indigenous communities across South Australia.

 The college, with project partners the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia and South Australia Health, has set up The Little Caravan of Fun to provide free two-day training courses in healthy eating, nutrition and horticulture.

 The project is funded through the Australian Government’s “Live Longer!” campaign, which calls on local communities to develop new ways to prevent and combat chronic disease to Close the Gap in Indigenous health outcomes.

 The caravan will travel to 22 South Australian Aboriginal communities by June next year to provide training and spread the word about healthy eating.

 Aboriginal Health Council chief executive officer, Mary Buckskin, said once participants had completed the training they would be encouraged to link in with their local Aboriginal community controlled health service to receive ongoing health checks, healthy lifestyle advice and support.

 “The Aboriginal Health Council and the recent course graduates will also work together to create a cookbook celebrating the considerable culinary skills of Aboriginal people around the state,” MAry said.

 “Training graduates will compete to have their recipe included in the cookbook. They will be invited to submit a recipe that is healthy, practical and uses ingredients they can get hold of locally.

 “A nutritionist will help select recipes that can be used in communities to help people to make healthier choices when preparing meals for their families.

 “We are hoping to get a good spread of traditional and contemporary recipes so we can all feel proud of how our people are making nutrition a priority.”

 SA Health will also use its involvement in the partnership to further promote the  messages of the ‘Give up smokes for good’ campaign, including the importance of making homes and cars smoke free.