The territorial delegate for Education and Sport in Almería, Antonio Jiménez, together with the Head of the Sports Service, Antonio Hernández, visited the Alto Almanzora Secondary School in Tíjola. There they were accompanied by the first deputy mayor, Maribel Tapia, the director of the centre, José Antonio Sánchez and by the Physical Education teacher and coordinator of the “Forma Joven” programme, Dulce Cano.
This teacher has set out to encourage and motivate her students through cooperative work and the “Service-Learning” methodology, in which students perform a service to the community at the same time as they learn. After an analysis of the topics that could be most motivating for them and within the scope of the ‘Forma Joven’ project of which this school is part, they decided to improve the healthy lifestyle habits of their locality, since the symbiosis between education and lifestyles is one of the main determinants of health. Therefore, it is important the acquisition of healthy lifestyle habits and the identification of assets in early life as a way to improve adult health.
In this sense, “Forma Joven” represents a great opportunity to promote equity, community participation and health empowerment of adolescents, young people, families, and professionals, as they take responsibility for the promotion of their health and well-being as well as their environment. With a clear objective, “they decided to promote hiking and cycling” and created the project ‘Tíjola en Movimiento’, explained Dulce Cano.
The students of 4th ESO and 1st Baccalaureate have created a dossier of routes that can be done by the municipality of Tijola and its surroundings, both walking and cycling and classified by levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). This work is available to everyone because you only need to download a QR code that can be found on the board of the Town Hall and the institute itself, as well as on the websites of the two institutions. It is then a matter of choosing between the different possibilities and options because we will also find information on characteristics, images and observations that will make our choice more interesting.
The delegate congratulated “those responsible for this initiative because it benefits everyone, and at the same time it shows how well the educational centres are working”. “Our obligation as an administration is to publicise these good teaching practices,” said Jiménez.
For her part, Maribel Tapias added her “thanks to all the teaching staff at this school who work so actively for the pupils and who do so with the rest of their neighbours in mind”.
Likewise, José Antonio Sánchez clarified that although “this action has come from the Physical Education department, the truth is that it works in an interdisciplinary way with the rest of the subjects because that is how we should understand education today”.
Finally, Antonio Jiménez reminded them of the possibility offered by the Junta de Andalucía to municipalities to declare the sporting use of Senderos. This is “aid provided by this administration which is aimed at local authorities in Andalusia and whose purpose is to promote the declaration of sporting use of Andalusian trails, which will allow them to carry out all the tasks of conditioning, adaptation, signage, maintenance and conservation, for their proper approval, ensuring that they are carried out in a safe, sustainable and consistent with the maintenance and preservation of the environment, as well as a rational use of natural resources”.
Promotion of Andalusian trails
Sporting activity on Andalusian footpaths is nowadays one of the best examples of sporting activity in the natural environment which stands out both for its popular nature in terms of the large number of people who practise it, and for the diversity of age and physical condition of the people who do so. It cannot be overlooked that an increasing number of people are using the extensive network of trails to practise different sports and specialities, including official competitions. Likewise, the footpaths are an extensive natural resource that invites the practice of sport, which is of substantial benefit to the organism, improves physical and emotional well-being, and generates a clear dynamising effect on the economy.
The growing demand of the Andalusian population for sporting activities in contact with nature is a fact that has been taken into account by the Regional Ministry to promote these actions, financially supporting the declaration of the sporting use of these trails, while promoting healthy lifestyle habits.
The aid will finance the drafting of projects and technical studies, obtaining certifications and feasibility reports, as well as the publication of informative material to publicise the projects.
In the province of Almería, 13 grants have been approved for the municipalities of Sierro, Chercos, Alboloduy, Macael, Cuevas de Almanzora, Urracal, Berja, Bacares, Olula del Río, Los Gallardos, Abrucena, Paterna del Río and Dalías, representing an approved investment of 195,872 euros and a total of 93,913 euros for grants.