Sports Contributing to Childrens Well being

Well Being for Children Through Sport

News and Stories by Nino Severino

As the Founder of The Hub Sport, one of our focuses is the wellbeing of children through sport, I was shocked to hear the news that the UK has the worst death rates for asthma for young people between the ages of 10-24, out of the 14 countries which are listed in the richest 19 nations in Europe. With the wealth and standard of living we benefit from in the UK, I believe it is utterly embarrassing and disgraceful that the powers to be, have let this situation develop, add this to the fact that we also have the unenviable position of the most obese 15-19 year olds in Europe, and it clearly supports the fact, that there is something severely wrong with the way we are educating and supporting our young children and teenagers in this country regarding health and wellbeing!

The Hub Team is making major efforts to address some of the deadliest problems we are currently experiencing here in Ipswich and the surrounding areas. We are involved in offering fitness through sport, and addressing healthy lifestyle habits through choosing sport as a positive component of children’s lifestyles. But we do not possess the influence of the government, whose job it is to create healthy environments for children to grow and develop in, and whose job it is to protect them from companies who are willing to sell products that are clearly addictive and bad for their health, I do believe we are simply not doing enough for the young children of our nation.

I have covered areas of children’s health in previous features, but depressingly, it is a situation that is far from improving, in fact it seems to be getting worse, and news such as our standing in the European deaths by asthma listings in young people, clearly shows that something needs to happen, and happen very quickly.  The asthma statistics prompted me to go forensic and study a wider area of health amongst the young people of our nation, and although there are a few positives, such as our young people are drinking and smoking less, we are still, as I put it in an earlier feature, sitting on a nuclear health time bomb in terms of millions of our children suffering from severe health issues in later life.

As I started to penetrate further into the wider holistic aspects of health, it is not only physical issues that are impacting on the younger community, but it is also the mental health status that is also showing worrying indicators, with one in four young women suffering from mental illness. I simply could not believe what I was reading, it seems insane that 25% of our young children, who are only in the first phases of their life paths, are already suffering from the torture the unhealthy mind can inflict on a young developing person. Unfortunately, this area not only impacts on the young individual themselves, but it also impacts on others in the community, as these children will often lose their way in life and cause problems for others through bad behaviour and criminality.

I have experience of this, as I have conducted many meetings in the educational community over the last 6 months, and through these meetings, I am now launching a mentoring programme through The Hub. I believe, as do others in the educational community, that sport and its positive experiences can be one of the solutions to dealing with physical and mental issues that our young people are sadly suffering from. The young people who will join my mentoring programme will be exposed to sport, the life of the athlete, their healthy living regimes, and the mental strength skills they need to develop to make good lifestyle choices and live a healthy and rewarding life. Our aim, through this programme will be to positively affect as many young students and athletes as we can, and hopefully re-set their minds and attitudes, which will ultimately empower them, to change their lives for the better.

I am not for one minute saying this mentoring programme will save our young nation from poor health and mental suffering, because sadly, it will not, at The Hub, we are simply doing what we can to impact in a positive way through our passion for sport.

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