A pro­gramme de­signed to strength­en com­mu­ni­ties and im­prove health called 'Neigh­bourics' is set to take the coun­try by storm for the next few weeks.

It is a com­bi­na­tion of good neigh­bour­ing and aer­o­bics that was con­cep­tu­alised by the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (PA­HO) in col­lab­o­ra­tion with US­AID, the five Re­gion­al Au­thor­i­ties (NWRHA, NCRHA, ER­HA, SWRHA and the TRHA) and the Phillips Pro­mo­tions Co Ltd, which has now be­come known for its pro­mo­tion of cy­cling events.

At a press brief­ing at Mike's Bike Shop on Ari­api­ta Av­enue in Port-of-Spain on Thur­day, chief pro­mot­er and for­mer na­tion­al cy­clist Michael Phillips said the event was born out of an ini­tia­tive to close off the high­way in Diego Mar­tin on Sun­days to al­low cy­cling and oth­er events that drove healthy liv­ing.

The con­cept of the 'Neigh­bourics' is a move to have some­thing more sig­nif­i­cant in the com­mu­ni­ties. It will be­gin as a pi­lot project in nine com­mu­ni­ties, name­ly San Juan, St Au­gus­tine, San­gre Grande, Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va, Princes Town, San Fer­nan­do, Moru­ga, Point Fortin, and in To­ba­go.

Through help from in­struc­tors from the De­fence Force, Phys­i­cal Train­ing In­struc­tors (PTI) pro­gramme, and well­ness and fit­ness per­son­nel who, like the in­struc­tors, will be sta­tioned in their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties, in­ter­est­ed per­sons can make con­tact to book their in­clu­sion. The ses­sions, Phillips said, will be free of charge to the pub­lic.

The ini­tia­tive will run for some four weeks be­fore cul­mi­nat­ing with a mas­sive Grand Fi­nale Fit­ness and Aer­o­bics Burnout at the Keep Mov­ing Diego Mar­tin High­way Fa­cil­i­ty card­ed for No­vem­ber 19.

Dr Er­i­ca Wheel­er, the PA­HO rep­re­sen­ta­tive and the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) said: "Com­ing out of COVID in par­tic­u­lar we need to make a state­ment about our health, not just in gen­er­al but liv­ing in our neigh­bour­hoods, close to where our fam­i­lies are, our friends are and our loved ones are and giv­en that what hap­pens every Sun­day as Phillips Pro­mo­tion did, we de­cid­ed why not.

"Let's have a go, let's work very close­ly with Michael Phillips and cel­e­brate well­ness be­cause I think we need to think more about well­ness. COVID showed us that many of the per­sons who suc­cumbed were per­sons with lifestyle dis­eases, and this is very im­por­tant that we ad­dress this across all age groups.

"Al­so in PA­HO we are very big on what we call the so­cial de­ter­mi­nants of health, so it's not just about phys­i­cal health but how many live in com­mu­ni­ties and about men­tal health and we know that the body and the mind work in tan­dem. So hav­ing phys­i­cal fit­ness and be­ing in a space where you can meet friends, you can bring your kids and you can do things to­geth­er."