{"id":1617,"date":"2025-07-23T07:19:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2025-07-23T07:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:19:17","slug":"fitness-classes-help-elderly-ugandan-women-fight-rising-rates-of-obesity-and-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/fitness-classes-help-elderly-ugandan-women-fight-rising-rates-of-obesity-and-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitness classes help elderly Ugandan women fight rising rates of obesity and diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elderly Ugandan women exercise together to fight lifestyle diseases<\/strong><\/p>\n

JINJA, Uganda – Wearing floor-length dresses and wrap-around skirts, the group of elderly women giggle and tease each other as they jog in pairs, hand in hand, across a playing field in Kivubuka, a village in eastern Uganda.<\/p>\n

The exercise class is part of a project aimed at reducing increasing rates of noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease and has attracted more than 1,000 people since it began five years ago.<\/p>\n

While famine and malnutrition remain major concerns in several African countries, obesity is increasingly on the march, especially among Ugandan women.<\/p>\n

Jane Anonyaalaba, a grandmother, is one of those looking to buck the trend. She used to struggle with high blood pressure, persistent aches and occasional paralysis in her limbs.<\/p>\n

“I would breathe with difficulty. Climbing a hill was almost impossible,” the 70-year-old said.<\/p>\n

Now, she bends over double to whack three tennis balls with a cricket bat before running between a set of blue plastic wickets.<\/p>\n

Item 1 of 5 Fitness coach Aaron Kusasira guides elderly women as they take part in community-led fitness drills session that combines yoga, aerobics, and cricket drills to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs), on a playing field in Kivubuka village, in Jinja District, Eastern Uganda, July 12, 2025.<\/p>\n

Fitness coach Aaron Kusasira guides elderly women as they take part in community-led fitness drills session that combines yoga, aerobics, and cricket drills to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs), on a playing field in Kivubuka village, in Jinja District, Eastern Uganda, July 12, 2025.<\/p>\n

A quarter of a century ago, just 4% of Ugandan women were obese, but that figure had more than doubled to 10.4% by 2019, according to the latest available dataset provided by the Global Nutrition Report, which tracks global nutrition.<\/p>\n

By comparison, male obesity had risen to just 2.3%.<\/p>\n

Weekly fitness clubs like Kivubuka may be a model for a local, low-cost approach to supporting aging communities across Africa, where 17% of adult women and 6.8% of men are obese.<\/p>\n

As people lead more urban, sedentary lifestyles, and eat cheaper ultra-processed foods, the continent is becoming more obese, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n

Obesity has brought a corollary rise in deaths: around one-third of Ugandans died from NCDs in 2016, almost double the number in 2000.<\/p>\n

“I want to think and believe that there (has been) a change in their lives,” said Isaac Imaka, who organises the club on behalf of the Gabula Royal Foundation, a charity established by a Ugandan traditional leader.<\/p>\n

“This… is a place where you can come and find a new friend, and just have something to talk about.”<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Source: Reuters<\/em><\/h6>\n

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Elderly Ugandan women exercise together to fight lifestyle diseases JINJA, Uganda – Wearing floor-length dresses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-travels"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",1080,727,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-300x202.jpg",300,202,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-768x517.jpg",640,431,true],"large":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-1024x689.jpg",640,431,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",1080,727,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",1080,727,false],"wpucv-grid-three":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",357,240,false],"wpucv-grid-two":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",594,400,false],"wpucv-grid-one":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",792,533,false],"wpucv-classic":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",253,170,false],"wpucv-classic-small":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",150,101,false],"wpucv-galary":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE.jpg",400,269,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-1080x715.jpg",1080,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-1024x689.jpg",1024,689,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DYHLSBNOB5IYVGRESHXNGFHRUE-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Saint Rich"]},"category_info":"Local<\/a> Travels<\/a>","tag_info":"Travels","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1619,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions\/1619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}