The Effects of Htee Rue Exercise Program to enhance Health Related Fitness for overweight students at Thai-Myanmar Border

Abstract

This document summarizes some of the existing research about overweight among students. This is mainly concerning the negative impacts of poor diet and the positive impacts of exercise. It then applies this research to the situation at Thoo Mweh Khee Learning Centre, a migrant school in Thailand, near the Thai/Myanmar border. Most students at the school cannot access the Thai school system because they don’t have Thai ID documents or because they cannot speak Thai language. The students are from the Karen ethnic group who are natives to Eastern Myanmar, across the border from the school and teaching up to Grade 10 is in the Karen language. The research selected one grade from the school (Grade 12) and analysed the bodyweight of the students. It uses a BMI of 23 or above to identify those students who are overweight. They represent just under 13% of the students or 1 out of every 8 students. It identifies that these students have very limited knowledge about the benefits of health-related fitness, target weight levels or contributing factors such as diet or exercise. The result is that their diet is high in fats/oils and sugars. Their free time is used for Facebook, online activities, study, and other sedentary activities such as watching movies. It concludes that a programme of exercise including Cardio-vascular and flexibility exercises, muscular strengthening, and endurance, and measuring body composition (BMI) would help. Whilst this addresses the exercise needs of the students, programmes could be developed to tackle other parts of the issues identified. For example, a dietary programme could be added to the exercise programme in the future. The present research recognizes that the overeating and/or the way they use their free time may reflect other underlying issues, such as having traumatic experiences in the past due to the ongoing war in the Karen ethnic area of Myanmar, or to other physical or emotional causes. It has not tried to analyse these deeper issues but identifies that further research in this area would be useful.

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