Sports, health and fUn for preschool childreN

The objective of this project proposal is to contribute to raising awareness of the need for physical activity as the basis of healthy lifestyle by changing habits of identified target groups (preschool children and their families) both in urban and rural areas. This is in compliance with EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity 2014-2020 (A healthy lifestyle should be adopted from an early age and should encompass healthy diet and physical activity - indoor and outdoor activities with parents or carers). The reason of undertaking this project is to tackle the challenges of growing obesity among preschool children in countries involved in the project and to raise awareness about importance of active lifestyle and healthy nutrition in all project partner countries (Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovenia, Portugal and Bosnia and Herzegovina). The focus will be on development of programme in rural areas due to the fact that sport and physical activities are not so accesable to the target groups from rural areas. There is a great gap between urban and rural areas in project countries. One of the main reasons for this are migrations from rural areas to big cities, therefore the lack of educated sport experts for conducting the recreational physical activities (PA) for preschool children (4 – 7 years i.e. until their enrollment to elementary school). For children to grow up healthy, it’s important they are physically active and eat healthy foods every day. To help children develop habits that will last a lifetime, an active, healthy lifestyle must start early in life. Physical activity has benefits at every age, and helps kids: keep their heart and lungs strong and healthy, become more flexible, develop strong bones, keep a healthy body weight, lower the risk of several diseases and health problems, improve their mood and self-esteem, and do better in school.