Out and about: Healthy Harold at Moama Public School.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Healthy Harold — the giraffe mascot of Life Ed — has been visiting the twin towns this week, thanks to a new fund helping country kids thrive.
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Harold’s ‘Murray Muster’ tour will be making stops along the Murray and Edward rivers, speaking to more than 1000 students from 11 schools, and stopped at Moama Public School on Wednesday.
The visits have been fully funded from the Life Ed Thrive Children’s Fund, which assists children and schools in rural, remote and low socio-economic areas in developing fundamental life skills.
“Programs like this give the students access to specialised teachers for health and safety units,” Moama Public School principal Scott McKenzie said.
“Our visits from Life Ed are usually biennial, but the new funding means that they can come and visit us more often.”
While many parents might be familiar with the vans that the program has travelled with in the past, this tour will be brought to students in the new ‘pop up classrooms’ — inflatable spaces designed to deliver engaging and memorable health education in an agile way to children in regional and remote areas.
The classroom fits into the back of a ute and ‘pops up’ in a matter of minutes, making it easy to reach more kids.
Through the program, children from preschool to upper primary learn about nutrition, cyber safety, safe decision-making, respectful relationships, and social and emotional wellbeing to support their mental and physical health.
Life Ed Australia chief executive Kellie Sloane said it was important for all children — no matter their circumstances — to receive health and wellbeing education to set them up for a healthy future.
“Every family and community across Australia should have access to health and wellbeing education. But not all families have what they need to support children’s development and learning in this way,” she said.
“This is why we see such major differences in the health of Australians across the country.
“Children living in Australia’s NSW and Victorian border communities have been impacted by recent disasters, especially drought and COVID lockdowns. They need our help to thrive and be healthy through these challenging times.
“Thanks to the Life Ed Thrive Children’s Fund, and the support of Woolworths Fresh Food Kids as our foundation partner, we can support country children’s development in the early years, increasing their health and wellbeing, and the success of their communities both now and in the future.”
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