The initiative "Azores in the Sun" will promote today a session to raise awareness for the precautions to take during sun exposure at the São Pedro swimming pools in Ponta Delgada. This event was part of the project developed by the Regional Government - "Summer in Motion" - through the Regional Directorate for Youth.

With a total of 25 thousand people covered per year, this initiatives will travel to the nine islands, covering all beach areas in the archipelago in a total of 200 awareness raising sessions.

The Regional Director for Youth attended the session "Azores in the Sun," which has been held for five years, considered this initiative as an effective means to disseminate a message that promotes healthy lifestyle habits during the bathing season.

Bruno Pacheco explained that "youngsters have more free time during this time of the year and that beach areas are places where it is usually more difficult to disseminate the message through traditional means, Thus, it is important to promote several activities in these moments of leisure, including sports activities, with the purpose of instilling healthy lifestyle habits that are necessary and indispensable nowadays."
 
The initiative "Azores in the Sun" is focused on two main areas: explain the benefits and dangers of the sun to a younger audience and which precautions should be taken; raise the awareness of adults and young adults at summer parties and festivals, where the exposure to the sun is most likely, explaining the precautions to be taken in more informal way and with the use of devices to measure ultraviolet rays.

To date, this campaign has travelled the western group covering 700 people in a session that aims to raise the awareness of the population for the precautions to be taken during sun exposure from early childhood to adulthood.

In addition to highlighting the importance of the Sun as a vital source of life, the project also aims to raise the awareness of youngsters and the population in general for the danger of sun exposure at certain times of the day and the ways of protecting the body.

This project also intends to motivate youngsters for Science themes as well as to create a stronger relation between participants and the scientific area by promoting the use of the experimental method as tool to develop critical thinking and observation skills.