A delegation from Loulé City Council was in Finland to participate in the 3rd Core Meeting of the European project “One Health 4 Cities”, which took place on the 12th, 13th and 14th of February, and work on health strategies for the senior population.
At the international meeting, as part of the URBACT IV One Health project, financed by the European Regional Development Fund, a delegation from the Chamber of Loulé met with members of the Chamber of Lyon (France), the metropolitan area of Strasbourg (France), the city of Munich (Germany), Elefsina (Greece), Benissa (Spain), Suceava (Romania), Kuopio (Finland) and the city of Lahti itself (Finland).
Among the different activities carried out, meeting participants had the opportunity to analyze the strategic plans of the Finnish city that was “Europe's Green Capital” in 2021 and its innovative projects in the area of environmental education, sports in nature and ecological transition.
The partner cities of the European project “One Health 4 Cities” were also present at the international conference “People & Planet 2024”, organized by the University of Helsinki (Finland).
According to the Loulé municipality, this event attracted experts from all over Europe and presented the most recent scientific studies related to health, the environment and informal physical activity.
«For the participants, the meeting was enriching. Despite the obvious differences between Loulé and Lahti, the challenges are very similar, with the way and strategies that each city uses to respond differing”, reads the note.
Loulé's objective is to continue the work started in 2015, promoting the health of the population, through informal physical activity.
However, in this case, the focus will be on seniors and active aging: «an area in which there is already a lot of work done, namely through interventions carried out in public spaces, in Loulé and Quarteira, in the context of the “Vital Cities”, for informal sport and the promotion of physical activity”».
In relation to “Healthy Cities”, the involvement of the Loulé municipality mainly involved the issue of smooth mobility, particularly with primary schools. Giving shape to the project, the Municipality invested in equipping schools with bicycles and also in promoting children's first contact with bicycles, through classes on school grounds, «given the high number of children who did not know how to ride a bicycle».
Active and healthy aging has been one of the issues in which the Municipality of Loulé has been involved, especially with support for projects such as the Skills Center for Active Aging, located in the city of Loulé.
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