February 19, 2018
The Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Network (QRRRWN) will be launching a new app next week to encourage women to do more exercise.
The QRRRWN will unveil ‘Walk Around Queensland’ (WAQ) in Kingaroy on Saturday, March 3, as part of International Women’s Day and Queensland Women’s Week celebrations.
Using the World Walk app, participants from across the state can log their daily activity and share it to a QRRRWN group on the World Walk website.
QRRRWN President Melissa Barnett said the initiative was important for rural, regional and remote women, who often prioritise work, family and community and have the extra difficulties of distance and a lack of exercise professionals or facilities available.
Participants can log their activity through the app between March 3 and March 10 to participate in WAQ.
Each logged activity will be added to the cumulative kilometres walked by all participants and tracked on a Queensland map showing how far the group has walked around Queensland.
Participants can add steps or convert other forms of exercise such as swimming, biking, or housework into steps using an online calculator.
Together the group will take a virtual walk through milestones around regional Queensland in the name of health, wellbeing and community.
The app also allows group members to communicate with each other as they post their daily achievements.
As further encouragement, prizes will be given for the most kilometres walked by an individual.
“We are hoping that RRR women throughout Queensland will get onboard ‘Walk Around Queensland’, connect with each other and remind each other that it’s important to take care of themselves both mentally and physically through exercise and self-care,” Melissa said.
“We are hoping the initiative will continue well beyond Queensland Women’s Week and become a regular catch-up for rural women.”
Walk Around Queensland has been made possible by a grant from the Queensland Office for Women and YWCAQ.
WAQ closely aligns with this years’ Queensland Women’s Week theme ‘Celebrate wellbeing – everybody wins’.
