Rokiah Mahmud
Hadwan Mar’ie bin Hairwan, 12, who has a mental disability, was named a winner for achieving the daily step goal challenge in the 12 – to 17-year-old category in the 20 Billion Steps Together Challenge – BN on the Move campaign.
According to his mother Faeizah binti Haji Yakop, they registered Hadwan for a daily goal of 5,000 steps.
“He always uses his phone. We registered him so that when we walk up and down the stairs, or around the house, the app would count his steps.”
She said another factor that helped Hadwan to keep moving was to slim down.
“As parents we always encouraged him to stroll around the house compound at least three times a week for about 1.8 kilometres, which was around 3,000 steps. We also brought him hiking.
“Even though he did not understand the benefit of the challenge, at least he practises healthy lifestyle,” she said.
The prize presentation was held at the atrium of the Health Promotion Centre, Ministry of Health (MoH) yesterday. Two winners achieved the 10,000 steps daily challenge, each receiving BND250 Dynamic Sports vouchers.
Another 40 winners who reached daily step goals were presented with BND100 Hua Ho vouchers. Ten winners were selected in the 12- to 17-year-old category; 10 winners for 18- to 40-year-old; 10 winners for 41- to 59-year-old; and 10 winners for 60 years and above.
Three winners selected for the social media challenge received BND50 Arrowtech vouchers while new registration and invite friends’ challenge saw 100 winners receive BND5 Hua Ho vouchers as prizes.
Acting Director of Policy and Planning at the MoH Dayangku Suzylawati binti Pengiran Indera Wijaya Pengiran Dr Haji Ismail and Head of Public Relations and Communications of Progresif Sdn Bhd Hafiza Mohamad handed over the prizes.
BN on the Move is a health promotion campaign to promote a new feature in the BruHealth app.
The campaign’s launch marks the beginning of the 1 Billion Steps Together challenge to promote a healthy lifestyle through walking or increasing the level of physical activities through exercise that can increase the number of steps taken each day either individually or in groups.
The BN on the Move campaign and the 1 Billion Steps Together challenge was launched on August 14 this year at Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien.
The challenge, joined by more than 43,000 participants, was completed in eight days, three hours and 41 minutes, which is a shorter time than the initial expectation of one month.
The MoH launched the 20 Billion Steps Together challenge in October and continues the year end. More than 67,000 users have participated in the challenge and more than 13 billion steps have been achieved.
The public is encouraged to continue adopting a healthy lifestyle and to stay active, as well as to update their steps in the BruHealth app daily.
