Summits - SBCC and C4D
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Summits - SBCC and C4D
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Obesity prevention in preschool and schoolchildren attending public schools from a district of Santiago, Chile: pilot project 2006

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Kain, J., F. Concha, et al. (2009). "Obesity prevention in preschool and schoolchildren attending public schools from a district of Santiago, Chile: pilot project 2006. / Prevención de obesidad en preescolares y escolares de escuelas Municipales de una Comuna de Santiago de Chile: proyecto piloto 2006." Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición 59(2): 139-146.

Background: Childhood obesity in Chile has been recognized as a public health problem. In 2006, we developed a school-based obesity prevention pilot project to intervene during 5 months preschool and school children from 1st to 4th grades attending 7 public schools located in a district of Santiago, Chile of medium-low and low SES.

Objective: The objective of this project was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a longer intervention giving recommendations to the educational authorities to better implement it.

Methods: We trained teachers to apply educational activities (in nutrition and physical activity) for the children in the 7 schools, but additionally in 4 of these schools, teachers of those grades participated in a Counselling program on healthy lifestyle applied individually, anthropometric evaluation and blood tests. The initiatives were evaluated on a sample of 522 schoolchildren (nutritional status and physical fitness), 38 teachers with Counselling (BMI, waist circumference or WC, blood sugar, HDL, triglycerides, cholesterol) and 19 teachers with no Counselling (BMI and WC). Additionally, we evaluated the quality of PE classes.

Results: The results on the children show a trend on only the younger ones to decrease the % obesity, improving significantly their physical fitness. In teachers with Counselling, a trend toward decreasing BMI and WC was observed, while biochemical parameters remained unchanged. We showed that it is feasible to implement a longer intervention recommending improving the quality of PE classes and allowing more time to train teachers and for individual Counselling.