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South Africa: Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture, and Recreation (DSACR) is hosting the annual Big Walk and National Recreation Day. The program will take place in Bloemfontein on October 4, 2024.
The Big Walk is aimed at educating society around the importance of recreation and engaging in physical activities. Through the programme, the organization wants to encourage the citizens to keep fit through taking walks and maintaining an active lifestyle.
2000 participants are expected to join this year’s Big Walk, Furthermore  and the department’s objective is to improve the health and well-being of the community by providing participation opportunities through active recreation.
The Big Walk Programme will take place under the following details:
Date: 4 October 2024
Time: 06H00
Mangaung Outdoor Sport Centre will be the venue for the day long festivities
The Big Walk will be followed by the National Recreation Day Programme which was scheduled by Cabinet on the 10th of December 2014. The event was supposed to take effect annually on the first Friday of October.
On this day, South Africans will be encouraged to become physically active for the sake of better physical and mental health. As such, participants are expected to dedicate some part of their day towards participating in physical activities of their choice intended to promote life-long wellness.
South Africa is facing several Non Communicable Health challenges such as obesity, cardiac disease, diabetes, respiratory ailments. The country is also home to a large ageing population, an increase in sedentary lifestyles and therefore loss of personal interaction and fitness.
Maintaining better physical fitness and healthier lifestyle is instrumental to prevent chronic diseases and long-term illnesses. Various sport and recreational activities such as Indigenous games, rope skipping, tabata, football 5-Aside and Netball will be hosted as part of the recreational programme.
A number of public and private sector partners such as athletics and aerobics clubs, Mangaung Golden Games, Mangaung Sport councils, Government departments, Love life, EMS ,SAPS, Local and District Municipalities and the community at large will be on board to contribute to this healthy living promotion programme.