TUMON, GUAM. The CHL program is “on track and making good progress”, says the CHL External Advisory Committee (EAC). At our third annual meeting held in Guam and graciously hosted by the University of Guam, 45 CHL staff and 5 CHL EAC members assembled for five days to inform, catch-up, and recalibrate our efforts for the next year.
The first conference day was a smaller meeting with the CHL jurisdictional leads, called the Program Steering Committee (PSC), and the EAC. The CHL-EAC is made up of Drs. Boyd Swinburn (University of Auckland), Kathryn Kolasa (Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University), Jennifer Anderson (Colorado State University Emeritus), Suzanne Murphy (University of Hawaii Emeritus), and Wendy Snowdon (Deakin University and Fiji National University). Each EAC member brings to CHL decades of experience with CHL-related issues; many in the Pacific region. At the end of the meeting the EAC provided the group with ideas to tune-up our work over the next year. We are grateful for their 10,000 ft perspective of our program!
During the remaining four days consisted of program updates, discussions and decision-making to ensure closer alignment on data collection and our upcoming intervention work. CHL staff are very focused on where we want to be in the next year: working with community partners to make a significant impact on the environment of current and future children to have::
- more water, sleep, fruit & veggies, and active play
- less sugar sweetened beverages and screen time.
It is clear that this type of clarity can only be accomplished in face-to-face discussions; email and teleconferences are simply not sufficient.
In order for the larger CHL group to get a sense of the environment and progress the Guam team has made in the last 2 years, we checked out some of the activities the team has been engaging in with some of the villages on Guam. Below are some photos from some of those activities. Biba Guam!
