DOHA FIFTEEN middle schools participated in a series of fun and educational games in the health and physical fitness contest titled ‘The Challenge’, which was organised by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMCQ) at Aspire Zone on Saturday.
The participating schools had been selected by the Supreme Education Council.
Besides the physical contests, the participating teams also held an exhibition of about 200 posters they had created on healthy eating, smoking and road safety.
Launched as part of the five-year campaign titled ‘Your Health First (YHF)’ in June 2012, the Challenge is set to become an annual event in Qatar’s academic calendar and aims at promoting healthy living in Qatar.
The goal of the Challenge as stated by organisers is to inspire young people and their families to embrace the opportunity to learn more about a healthy lifestyle to build a strong and healthy future generation.
“The five-year YHF campaign primarily aims to educate both Qatari and expatriate communities, especially the youth, about healthy lifestyles. And the Challenge, a programme of WCMC-Q, aims to encourage school children and the youth to opt for healthy lifestyles, which is a must for sustainable development of the nation,” stated, Minister of Public Health and Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) HE Abdullah bin Khalid al Qahtani.
HE the Minister also lauded the partnership and cooperation between private and public sectors in Qatar in this regard, as embodied in the YHF initiative for the benefit of the community.
Dr Sallam Sharab from SCH’s Health Education wing remarked, “Today we have reached the last day of the first year of the YHF campaign.
The Challenge is an easy way to engage the public and spread our message. In these five years of YHF, we are trying to engage as many schools as we can. We are moving in the right direction”, he stated.
Dean of WCMC-Q Dr Javaid Sheikh said, “This has truly been an inspiring event.
The Challenge is about educating our young people and their families about the facts pertaining to a healthy lifestyle in an enjoyable way.
Today there has been lots of laughter, lots of fun and lots of exercise and at the same time every participating student learned a little more about the importance of staying healthy. I hope that this message will spread across Qatar so we can help create a healthy population able to contribute to a knowledgebased economy.” The YHF campaign is organised by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar in partnership with Supreme Council of Health, Supreme Education Council, Qatar Petroleum, Oxy, ExxonMobil and Vodafone.
The winner of the boys’ event at the Challenge was AbuBakr Assedeeq Preparatory School while International School of Choueifat bagged the award in girls’ category. Each member of the winning teams received iPad minis courtesy Vodafone Qatar, which provided all the prizes for The Challenge.
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