Papeete (Tahiti) - The Tahiti Basketball Federation is preparing to launch its basketball health program, "Maita'i Sport For Health" to the communities in the country.

Maita'i Sport For Health will focus on educating the participants on non-communicable diseases and adapted physical activity in Tahiti.

"We created this program to help our participant's well-being and improve their lifestyle through basketball. We have seen former athletes who are out of shape and want to give them the chance to get fit again," said program administrator, Tuhiata Mariteragi.

Mariteragi shared that the program set a target date launch on 2 June 2020 and the first session will be held in Paea.

"The activities will be held all around the island with different educators and different disciplines, the health basketball will be run this year in Paea," she said Mariteragi. "The sessions will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 pm to 5 pm starting from the 2nd of June 2020."

The program was developed in partnership with the Tahiti government and the participants will have to secure referrals from doctors and sports educators.

"The patients will get their attending physicians to complete a form and prescribe the duration of physical activity that the patients need. After this, the patients perform initial testing with the educators which will be used as baseline data," explained Mariteragi.

"In this program, participants will be able to choose the activities they want, they will be placed in groups of 12 people maximum. During these sessions the educator adapts to the pathology of the different patients," she added.

The target audience for the program are people who are going through certain pathologies to educate about the disease or injury.

"We are going to target participants that have one or multiple pathologies such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease," Mariteragi shared.

FIBA