FIT FOR KIDS EUROPE

Background There are 4 million obese children in the EU. Acc. to statistics 70% of them will remain obese as adults. Research has shown that the life quality of an obese child is comparable to that of a child with cancer. It is clearly emotionally painful to be obese, but also costly for society: The EU spends 80 billion Euros every year in direct health costs due to obesity. If you add the costs of medical treatment of Diabetes 2, you can add 300 billion Euros every year. Objectives The objectives of the project were to:-Further expand the FitforKids European presence by increasing the number of potential partners.-Present FitforKids as a best-in-class case study and true driver for Volunteer Based Social/Health Programs-Develop a language and culturally adapted version of the FitforKids Program targeting the large Turkish minority in the EU-member states.-Provide the FitforKids Online Health Program for FitforKids Partners and FitforKids Families all over Europe. Implementation The implementation process was grounded on interactions on the Transnational Project Meetings and online project meetings where the partners reviewed the program, worked on research reports to get a clear understanding of childhood obesity in EU, translated the material and gained a common understanding of what local adaptations were needed. The Partners then recruited volunteers, that underwent the mandatory FitforKids training, enabling them to start local activities. Achievements The Project have developed and released a: -research report on “Childhood Obesity Programs in EU”, -research report on a successful “Healthy lifestyle campaign” and a set of Guidelines, -Potential Partner Profile for future FitforKids partners in more EU states,-educational materials for the FitforKids partner platform “FFK EU”-translated versions of the “FitforKids Health Online” platform, and-run local activities with physical trainings iin Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal and DK