H.E.L.P. Project

We are inspired by a famous Roman poet, Juvenal's quotation 'Mens sana in corpore sano' (Healthy mind in a healthy body) which enlightens us that only a healthy body can produce or sustain a healthy mind. Health is the greatest asset of our life. It has two faces. On the one hand, it is our strong warrior who fights against the enemies: viruses. On the other hand it turns out to be a vulnerable beggar who gives up the essence of life. A healthy lifestyle in childhood and adolescence affect a lifelong health, growth and intellectual development. Healthy, energetic living people build up a happy society. With the H.E.L.P of this project, we will increase students, teachers and our societies’ interests in other cultures, customs, languages, lifestyles and health education. We will promote health education at all aspects of sharing feelings, ideas and as well as medical information. We will publish an online & printed newspaper with four editions and two school year calendar with the monthly topics related to health. We will gain understanding of each other’s healthy lifestyles by having the opportunity to visit our European partners. We will discover current lifestyles and share information through e-mails and web based resources, including creating a website for all participant schools to access. Through this project we intend to focus on a healthy way of life and learn for our students, including nutrition and exercise to sustain physical, mental and emotional health, resistance against epidemic diseases and avoidance of bad habits such as smoking, drug taking and internet overuse. We will promote sports and health-enhancing physical activities by organizing exercises and sports tournaments. The concrete objectives of the partnership are the following:
- to research on problems that affect the health of our youngsters;
- to analyse the causes that are at the core of these problems;
- to propose possible solutions for these problems;
- to explore what different schools do to promote healthy lifestyles;
- to promote understanding of the healthy lifestyles;
- to exchange ideas and to create solutions that will work for all partner schools;
- to prevent some mental and emotional problems of the students whose parents work in other countries or who comes from other countries or regions;
- to help students become aware of the danger of incorrect use of the PC, the Internet and television;
- to address issues of conflict such as bullying and racism;
- to encourage our pupils to develop their skills of their mother tongues and foreign languages;
- to discover other countries’ lifestyles through the project meetings and internet communication;

The subjects we intend to address are the following:
- English;
- Mother Tongue;
- ICT;
- Art;
- Sports;
- Civic Education;
- Biology;
Through these subjects we intend to address the following problems:
- health problems that affect our youngsters;
- addictions that affect our youngsters;
- different lifestyles;
- unhealthy vs. healthy lifestyles;
- early school leaving on students’ behalf;
- the need for new tools that may help the teaching/learning process;
- immigration's effects on children and families;
- students’ lack of motivation towards the learning process;
- to face the health problems in a cross-curricular way;

To achieve our objectives we intend to:
-help pupils and their families realize the importance of sensible healthy diet, exercise and avoidance of bad habits;
-develop motivating methods and techniques to gain a healthy lifestyle;
-help pupils be more conscious about nutrition;
-trigger students' interest and creativity regardless of their age, background and culture with interactive techniques;
-make pupils, families and school community aware of the necessity of leading a healthy lifestyle;
-disseminate the results of the work done within this project at local, regional, national and European levels.