Heather Parisi is the founder of the Fitness for Africa program and the Pearl Of Hope School in Uganda, Africa. She shares with us her incredible and inspiring story of her journey to Africa that made such a difference in the lives of the children in Uganda. This is her story:

It was a trip to Uganda to visit the Silverback Gorillas that changed my life forever. Always having a calling within to visit Africa and experience the animals and Safari, never did I imagine that five years after my first trip to Uganda I would have my own Not For Profit Organization and be operating a Nursery and Primary School based on bringing healthy lifestyles and opportunity to the vulnerable and forgotten people of Uganda.

Fitness For Africa is the result of my experience in Uganda five years ago, and Pearl of Hope Nursery and Primary School is my thriving and fully operational school now serving 60 students and their families in the village of Lela Obaro, Uganda.

Living a life based upon the concept that everyone has the right to live healthy and make conscious health choices, I have taken this belief of fitness, health, nutrition, and choice to the people of Uganda through my Flip2BFit Fitness Board Games. I have also instilled the overall concept of opening minds to the foods around them that are readily available and how to combine them with health and nutrition as the core and root to build upon.

After supplying my Flip2BFit games to S&S Worldwide for a few years, I reached out to share what I was doing in Uganda to open minds to the concepts of play, movement, and fitness. Without hesitation I was overwhelmed with a beautiful donation of sporting equipment to share with my students and the local community.  In the video below, you will experience the laughter, giggles, and purity of fun as experienced by my staff, the community, and my students as they embrace the simple aspects of play with balancing buckets and the parachute!

Life is a journey of beautiful minds, cultures and people across the globe. My goal is to assure that as many people as I can are afforded the knowledge and the ability to understand that they have the right to choose a life of health and happiness.

I hope you enjoy the photos of my students and the beautiful community of Lela Obaro, Uganda. Thank you so much S&S Worldwide for your generosity and support of my school!

When Hy Shwartz, Co-President of S&S Worldwide, heard Heather’s impressive story of providing fitness and education for children in Africa, he was happy to donate supplies to her Fitness for Africa project. After Heather returned from Uganda, we were so happy to hear how much the children enjoyed our donation to her school. Heather raved, “The children had so much fun I can’t even begin to express to you the smiles – laughter and giggles that came out of them as we shared the various items and played with them! The Parachute was a HUGE success and even my staff members found it to be a lot of fun!  Something NO one in Uganda has ever seen and something that they will cherish everyday that they use it and have hours of fun with.”

Check out Heather’s great video of her students using our parachute!

Thanks to Heather for allowing us to share her story, and we are so proud to have been a part of this wonderful program!

About Heather Parisi

Heather’s passion in life is fitness, health, and nutrition. On a vacation to Uganda in 2010 to see the endangered Silver Back Gorillas, Heather met a survivor of the Kony Rebels and the seed of nursery school was planted inside of her. Heather’s epiphany was simply stated, “I knew that this was the reason I was born”. Soon after, Heather founded Flip2BFit in 2011 to help fight the global epidemic of obesity and to open people’s minds to a healthy lifestyle through playing a fitness board game. In 2011, Heather founded Fitness For Africa, to bring education and healthy lifestyle awareness to the people of Uganda. In 2013, she opened the doors of the Pearl of Hope nursery school.