DOHA THE Supreme Council of Health (SCH) recently honoured 32 schools and other institutions that participated in the second edition of its ‘We are healthy’ campaign.
The ‘We are healthy’ was a health education programme aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle among students and staff of primary independent schools across the country.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the programme, Director of Health Promotion and Non-communicable Diseases at SCH Dr Sheikha Al Anoud bint Mohammad al Thani said the campaign targeted primary school children to train them on how to improve their health.
‘We are healthy’ seeks to help students to learn how to live a healthy life by encouraging them to take part in physical exercises before, during and after school hours. The programme also seeks to encourage children to choose healthy food and drinks both inside and outside the school,” she said.
She added: “The campaign also aimed to promote healthy practices in the family as an active unit of the community through the participation of civil society organisations and the media.
The ‘We are healthy’ programme is thus a nucleus of a national project aimed at community development.” Dr Al Anoud expressed joy over the outcome of the programme, adding that the results were monitored periodically and systematically.
Presenting weekly evaluation of the campaign, Dr Al Anoud said that the number of students participating in physical exercises rose from 64 percent before the commencement of the drive to 90 percent at the end of the programme.
She also pointed out that the percentage of students who were able to differentiate between healthy and harmful meals increased from 69 percent before the programme to 93 percent after its implementation took off.
Dr al Anoud thanked the participating schools and institutions, including the Supreme Education Council and Qatar Foundation, for their support to the successful implementation of the programme.
The ‘We are healthy’ programme did not only provide information or health education to the students, but also actively worked to improve their health behaviour with various activities inside and outside the classroom.
The Public Health Department at the Supreme Council of Health had implemented the programme in 2011 among only 15 primary schools. The campaign served as a pilot scheme within a strategic plan to expand its reach to cover all primary schools in Qatar.
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