"Give a child a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for life."

Health promotion uses a range of complementary approaches to provide individuals and communities with knowledge that will enable them to improve their own health and wellbeing. ^1,2,3 Encouraging children to adopt healthy lifestyle habits is a central objective of health promotion. Health promoting (HP) schools use “a whole-school approach to enhance the health and educational outcomes of children and adolescents through teaching and learning experiences initiated in the schools”, ^1,4 and establish the school “as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.” ⁵ HP schools have the potential to positively impact over 1 billion children worldwide, ⁶ as the positive environment created in the school fundamentally influences attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, and promotes resilience, and the positive messages and practical interventions can be reinforced throughout the years children remain in school. It is recognized that schools strongly influence how children develop in terms of their self-esteem, self efficacy and sense of control over their lives because of positive exposure to the powerful influence of teacher support and peer networks. ⁷

1. St Leger L. Schools, health literacy and public possibilities and challenges. Health Promotion International. 16, 197-205. 2001
2. Davidson RG, et al Socioeconomic differences in Health, Nutrition, and Population within developing countries. An overview. The World Bank. 2007
3. WHO. Nairobi call to action for closing the implementation gap in health promotion. WHO Geneva. healthpromotion@who.int. 2009
4. Nutbeam D. (2000) Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21^st century. Health Promotion International. 15, 259-267. 2000
5. WHO Expert Committee on Comprehensive School Health Education and Promotion. Promoting Health through Schools. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 870, ISBN 92 4 129870 8, 1997
6. Kwan SYL, et al. Health-promoting schools: an opportunity for oral health promotion. Bull. World Health Organization. 83 10.1590/S0042-96862005000900013, 2005
7. Stewart D, et al. Promoting and building resilience in primary school communities: Evidence from a comprehensive ‘health promoting school’ approach. Int J Mental Health Promotion. 6, 26-33. 2004