Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) employees and their families converged at the Mt Darwin Road campus on Friday 5th July 2019 to commemorate the university’s fifth (5th) Wellness Day. The event was held under the theme, “Universal Health Coverage: Everyone Everywhere” and was officiated by Dr Eric Nyazika, a medical practitioner based in Bindura.
In his welcome address, the University’s Registrar, Mr Majaure Neusu who was standing in for the Vice Chancellor, Professor Eddie Mwenje said the event was organised annually to remind employees that the university cared about their health and well-being. “Your health and wellness is our concern both physical and mental. A shift to change the lifestyles and emphasis towards fitness to achieve optimal levels of employee health and prevention of illnesses remains BUSE’s priority number one,” he said. He went on to encourage employees to utilize Wednesday afternoon sports days for their physical fitness.
Mr Neusu also highlighted the benefits associated with healthy and wellness programmes including improving employees’ health behaviours. “As you know healthy behaviours lead to lower health risks, and lower health risks lead to less chronic disease. With less chronic disease employees have fewer health care costs,” he said.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Neusu thanked the sponsors for their financial and material support which enabled the university to successfully host its 2019 Wellness Day.
The Guest of Honour, Dr Nyazika gave an enlightening talk about stress. He defined stress as the body’s reaction to any change. He added that the body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. “Stress is a normal part of life. You can experience stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts. Even positive life changes such as a promotion, or the birth of a child produce stress,” he said trying to explain that stress can also be induced by positive changes.
He shared with his audience how stress affected health. He highlighted the physical symptoms of stress as including headaches, stomach upsets, elevated blood pressure and, chest pains among other symptoms. He strongly warned BUSE employees not to engage in substance abuse as a way of relieving their stress. He encouraged members of staff to relive their stress through physical activity, saying no to additional or unimportant requests and resting when not feeling well, among other stress relieving tips.
The Wellness day was packed with exciting activities including Zumba dances, fun races and quiz sessions.
A number of exhibitors from the health, financial and insurance sector show-cased their products and services. These included Banc ABC, ZB bank, Micro-Plan, Nyaradzo Funeral Services, CIMAS, PSMAS, Ponesai Clinic, Zimnat and, Fidelity. University administrators, academic and academic support staff also graced the occasion.
