CHURCH leaders are being encouraged to motivate their respective congregations to take care of their personal wellness.
This comes in light of the Fiji Wellness Summit 2013 which took place over Thursday and Friday at the Fiji National University (FNU) in Suva. Speaking to this newspaper yesterday was the Ministry of Health's Ravinesh Chetty, who is part of the Ministry's National Centre for Wellness.
"All the faith-based organisations have a very big role to play in this area," he said. "In fact there are many of these church ministers and pastors who are doing this already.
"We encourage other leaders to join in as well."
President of the Sanatan Daharam Pratindhi Sabha, Deewan Maharaj, said this was important in Fiji because of the people's diets.
"We've been preaching about this issue for a while now — the cutting back on grog and watching the way we eat," he said.
Mr Maharaj said as the founder of the Kidney Foundation of Fiji, it was clear to see that diets played a major role in the life of the average Fijian.
"Awareness in Fiji is really important and we need to be aware that people in Fiji don't die from hunger. We die from over eating and the misuse of food in our daily diets."