Luanda, 27 February 2025 – In commemoration of SADC Healthy Lifestyles Day, Pura, a Refriango water brand, the Nação Verde Association (ANV), and the National Commission for UNESCO (CNU-Angola), launched the Environmental Education and Health Campaign in Luanda. Under the theme “Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles through Education”, from the 24th to the 28th of this month, teachers, students, environmental activists and partners engaged in awareness-raising activities on public health, including a community clean-up and waste classification drive.
Over the course of four days at the Instituto Médio de Economia de Luanda (IMEL), more than 200 students and teachers from CNU-Angola network schools and partner institutions took part in environmental and health education initiatives. The campaign aimed to foster environmental awareness and promote healthy lifestyle practices. It was a joint initiative by Pura, ANV and CNU-Angola, aligned with SADC Healthy Lifestyles Day.
As part of the scheduled activities, environmental brigades from schools involved in the Reciclar Econnosco project led awareness sessions for students and teachers, reaching over 20,000 pupils across 10 schools. These brigades were made up of 120 participants from government entities, environmental associations, social partners and individuals.
On 27 February, the campaign opened a poster exhibition focusing on health, the environment and citizenship. The materials were produced by students during the awareness sessions, helping reinforce public health campaigns, particularly those combating cholera, and highlighting the importance of environmental preservation and protection.
On the same day, IMEL hosted a lecture titled “Environmental Education and Health in Commemoration of SADC Healthy Lifestyles Day”. Topics included “Environmental Education”, presented by ANV, and “Community Health”, delivered by the Student Association of the Institute of Health Sciences (AE-ICISA) of Agostinho Neto University. Through the Health in the Community project, now in its 7th edition, AE-ICISA has already reached 50,000 people from the north to the south of the country with its community outreach programmes.
The final day of the campaign, 28 February, will feature a community clean-up and solid waste classification activity in Cassequel do Buraco, in the Teixeira district of Luanda – an area with a high risk to public health.
Alexandre de Sousa Costa, Permanent Secretary of the CNU and one of the institutional partners of the Environmental Education and Health Campaign, urged everyone to become agents of change by adopting healthy and sustainable lifestyles, emphasising daily habits such as balanced nutrition, physical activity, environmental protection and conscious consumption.
According to Nuno Cruz, President of ANV, the Environmental and Health Education Campaign represents a key milestone for the student community. “Nação Verde Association, as an organisation committed to environmental protection, plays a pivotal role in this initiative, contributing its expertise in informal environmental education and community awareness, while promoting sustainable solutions such as the Recicla+ project. This project focuses on circular economy practices in urban solid waste management by implementing eco-points in communities, particularly public schools, along with educational activities and debates,” he explained.
“These campaigns reinforce the role of Pura water in promoting health, hydration, and healthy habits – a mission that began many years ago and continues to grow in importance and impact,” said Tânia Jardim, Marketing Director at Refriango. “The initiative we celebrate today had a significant role in raising awareness among over 200 students, teachers, and participants about the importance of consuming safe water and the necessary precautions to prevent waterborne diseases, thus supporting cholera prevention campaigns. At the same time, we conveyed an important message about environmental protection, which is directly linked to public health – a cause PURA actively supports through significant efforts, such as the monthly donation of 11,000 bottles of PURA water to the Breast Milk Bank at Lucrécia Paim Maternity Hospital and the Angolan Institute for Cancer Control.”
SADC Healthy Lifestyles Day, under which the Environmental and Health Education Campaign took place, is an initiative aimed at promoting healthy living practices across the region. The countries within the community seek to achieve acceptable health standards for all citizens and specific targets under the “Health for All” goal by 2030.
