{"id":706,"date":"2025-01-21T08:19:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T13:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.hostinghappisoft.xyz\/les-congolais-de-hamilton-sortent-les-aines-de-leur-routine\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T08:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:29:21","slug":"les-congolais-de-hamilton-sortent-les-aines-de-leur-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/les-congolais-de-hamilton-sortent-les-aines-de-leur-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton\u2019s Congolese community brings seniors out of their routine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Alexia Grousson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A worrying need emerged in the wake of the pandemic. Many seniors feel lonely and isolated. They no longer have a social life and no longer leave their homes. This has negative consequences for their mental and physical health, and several illnesses can result. To address this problem, on August 17, the Congolese Community of Hamilton (CCH) organized a walk followed by a barbecue at Bayfront Park.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a public health expert, I know how important it is to live a healthy life. The social stress we see in our seniors can lead, for example, to blood pressure problems or rising rates of diabetes. That\u2019s why, together with our community, we decided to create a project to fight isolation, in order to support our seniors and raise their awareness of these issues and of the benefits of physical and social activity,\u201d says Jean-Jacques Somwe, president of the CCH.<\/p>\n<p>The organization\u2019s members met at Bayfront Park at 10 a.m. for a walk of about two hours. Along the way, they stopped several times to take in the scenery. \u201cThis place is beautiful, and it\u2019s important to take the time to reflect on what we see,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>At the same location, the CCH social committee continued the activity with a barbecue of assorted meats served with salads and fruit. The message was meant to be clear, even through the food: eating healthily is also an important part of overall health.<\/p>\n<p>After the meal, the participants played quiet games. Some were more intellectual, like checkers, and others more physical, like tossing a ball into a distant hole. \u201cThe goal of these games was to have fun while socializing. We wanted to encourage team spirit rather than competition. With the nice weather, I can say it was a success,\u201d the CCH president continues.<\/p>\n<p>To feel united, the social committee had asked participants to wear a white T-shirt for the day, white being the symbol of health. For those who didn\u2019t have one, the committee brought one along.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to recognize one another and be seen in the community. It worked. For example, a woman came up to us to ask what we represented. A francophile, she would have liked to join us. That gives us ideas for future activities. We could open the walks to other communities and have more people by our side,\u201d concludes Jean-Jacques Somwe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo\u00a0<\/strong>(CCH): All the participants wore a white T-shirt.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> Le \br\u00e9gional.com<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexia Grousson Un besoin inqui\u00e9tant a vu le jour \u00e0 la suite de la pand\u00e9mie. Beaucoup d\u2019a\u00een\u00e9s se sentent seuls et isol\u00e9s. Ils n\u2019ont plus de vie sociale et ne sortent plus de chez eux. Cela entra\u00eene des cons\u00e9quences n\u00e9gatives sur leur condition mentale et physique et plusieurs maladies peuvent en d\u00e9couler. Pour pallier ce probl\u00e8me, le 17\u00a0ao\u00fbt, la Communaut\u00e9 congolaise de Hamilton\u00a0(CCH) a organis\u00e9 une marche suivie d\u2019un barbecue au parc Bayfront. \u00ab\u00a0\u00c9tant un expert en sant\u00e9 publique, je connais bien l\u2019importance d\u2019avoir une vie saine. Le stress social remarqu\u00e9 chez nos a\u00een\u00e9s peut entra\u00eener, par exemple, des probl\u00e8mes de tension ou l\u2019augmentation du diab\u00e8te. C\u2019est pourquoi avec notre communaut\u00e9, nous avons d\u00e9cid\u00e9 de cr\u00e9er un projet de lutte contre l\u2019isolement afin de soutenir nos personnes \u00e2g\u00e9es et de les conscientiser sur ces probl\u00e8mes existants et sur les bienfaits d\u2019avoir une activit\u00e9 sportive et sociale\u00a0\u00bb, mentionne Jean-Jacques Somwe, pr\u00e9sident de la CCH. Les membres de l\u2019organisme s\u2019\u00e9taient donn\u00e9 rendez-vous au parc Bayfront \u00e0 10\u00a0h pour faire une marche d\u2019environ deux heures. En chemin, ils se sont arr\u00eat\u00e9s plusieurs fois pour observer la nature. \u00ab\u00a0Cet endroit est magnifique et c\u2019est important de prendre le temps de m\u00e9diter sur ce que l\u2019on voit\u00a0\u00bb, ajoute-t-il. Au m\u00eame endroit, le comit\u00e9 social de la\u00a0CCH a poursuivi l\u2019activit\u00e9 en offrant un barbecue compos\u00e9 de viandes diverses accompagn\u00e9es de salades et de fruits. Le message se voulait \u00eatre clair, m\u00eame \u00e0 travers la nourriture\u00a0: manger sain est \u00e9galement un aspect important pour la sant\u00e9 en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral. Apr\u00e8s le repas, les participants ont jou\u00e9 \u00e0 des jeux calmes. Certains \u00e9taient plus intellectuels comme le jeu des dames et d\u2019autres plus plysiques comme lancer un ballon dans un trou au loin. \u00ab\u00a0L\u2019objectif de ces jeux \u00e9tait de s\u2019amuser tout en socialisant. Nous voulions favoriser l\u2019esprit d\u2019\u00e9quipe plut\u00f4t que la comp\u00e9tition. Avec le beau temps, je peux dire que ce fut un succ\u00e8s\u00a0\u00bb, poursuit le pr\u00e9sident de la CCH. Pour se sentir \u00e0 l\u2019unisson, le comit\u00e9 social avait demand\u00e9 aux participants de porter un chandail blanc pour la journ\u00e9e. Le blanc \u00e9tant le symbole de la sant\u00e9. Si certains n\u2019en poss\u00e9daient pas, le comit\u00e9 leur en avait apport\u00e9 un. \u00ab\u00a0Nous voulions nous reconna\u00eetre et nous faire voir dans la communaut\u00e9. Cela a fonctionn\u00e9. Par exemple, une dame est venue nous aborder pour savoir ce que nous repr\u00e9sentions.\u00a0 Francophile, elle aurait aim\u00e9 se joindre \u00e0 nous. Cela nous donne des id\u00e9es pour les prochaines activit\u00e9s. Nous pourrions ouvrir les marches \u00e0 d\u2019autres communaut\u00e9s et ainsi avoir plus de monde \u00e0 nos c\u00f4t\u00e9s\u00a0\u00bb, conclut Jean-Jacques Somwe. Photo\u00a0(CCH): Les participants \u00e9taient tous v\u00eatus d\u2019un chandail blanc. \u00a0 Source : Le \br\u00e9gional.com<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nouvelles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacch.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}