About the Physical Activity Program
South Asian and Middle Eastern Women Being Active (SAMBA) was a culturally-sensitive and collaboratively-designed physical activity program for South Asian and Middle Eastern women.
SAMBA was developed through community-based participatory research, which included focus group discussions and interviews with women from this community in Perth.
SAMBA was specially designed for South Asian and Middle Eastern women who were not currently doing much physical activity, but hoped to become more active.
During the 10-week SAMBA program, women attended one 45-90 minute session per week. Each session included fun activities (e.g., dance) led by female community instructors, and interesting information to help the women to become more active.
SAMBA was a community program with a research element. Hence, all women were asked to complete questionnaires and provide measurements of physical activity on three occasions: before the program started, at the end of the 10-week program, and three months after the end of the program. All women were also asked to wear activity monitors (accelerometers) for 8 consecutive days on these three occasions.
Program Feedback
We delivered the program with three groups of South Asian and Middle Eastern women across Perth in 2020 and at the end of the program we asked about their experiences of taking part in SAMBA.
Here is some of the feedback:
“It was a great opportunity for me participating in SAMBA program. I will be looking forward for such programs in future as well that would help to boost my physical activity. This kind of Program will be beneficial for women especially for South Asian Women.”
“Its a good program with very encouraging and understanding instructors.“
“I was struggling to start exercise but after I joint SAMBA I got confident about myself. I would like to thank for that.“
“We all had a good time and I enjoyed a lot. Specially dancing time.“
“You have provided us with so much strength and motivation throughout this program and it has helped me make changes in my lifestyle.”
“I had great time and added more value to my life. Which I was struggling to start from longtime.”