This programme is one of the legacies of the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games, a unique bridge between Lausanne and Dakar which twins experts from the medical world to promote health and wellbeing.
Dakar en Jeux workshops tackle important issues
A pilot programme for Impact Spark was held during the recent Dakar en Jeux festival, which brought together 200 teenagers from local schools to celebrate the diversity and energy of Senegal’s young people through sport, music and culture.
From 7 to 9 November, Impact Spark brought together medical professionals from Switzerland and Senegal to deliver six themed workshops that combined learning with sports activities. Each workshop addressed an important health topic, using interactive elements such as quizzes, team sports and movement-based games to engage participants in an accessible way. Activities like volleyball, slack-lining, football, breaking, taekwondo and basketball were chosen to reinforce messages of resilience, teamwork and positive lifestyle choices.
The six workshops included:
- Violence Prevention: Using volleyball to address non-violent conflict resolution and emotional regulation.
- Sexual Health Awareness: Promoting HPV vaccination and STI prevention through balance exercises.
- Malaria Prevention: Emphasising prevention strategies via a team-based football activity.
- Addiction Awareness: Educating young people on the risks of addiction, ending with a breaking session that highlighted healthy self-expression.
- Oral Health Education: Teaching oral hygiene and resilience through participatory brushing activities and taekwondo.
- Mental Health and Wellbeing: Fostering social support and emotional awareness through basketball.
Experts from the CHUV, including paediatricians and psychiatrists, collaborated closely with local medical professionals to ensure the programme’s effectiveness, blending Swiss and Senegalese expertise to address specific health challenges facing young people in the host nation.