Health Minister Launches "Your Health First" Campaign

Doha, June 20 (QNA) - HE Abdulla bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Minister of Health and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), has launched "Your Health First" campaign aimed at promoting health awareness among the Qatari community. The campaign, which is organized by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) in cooperation with the SCH, targets the particular age group (10-25 years ). Speaking at the inauguration ceremony held at the St. Regis Doha Hotel and sponsored by Qatar Petroleum (QP), Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd, Exxon Mobil and Vodafone Qatar, the Health Minister said this campaign is in line with National Health Strategy 2011-2016, which considers awareness as key factor for a healthier population. The campaign aims at enhancing health education programs and provide the community with preventive guidelines for disease prevention, explained HE Al Qahtani. This campaign is a vivid example of the ongoing cooperation between the SCH and WCMC-Q, he said, noting that such a collaboration reflects SCH's vision to enhance collaboration with the private sector as a key partner to promote public health. The campaign will extend over a five year period through which efforts will focus on promoting healthy behavior and meeting the challenge of improving physical activity and dietary, explained HE Al Qahtani, who underlined the importance of the role to be played by media and social networking to reach the largest possible number of people and achieve the desired outcomes. For his part, Dr. Javaid Sheikh, WCMC-Q Dean, reaffirmed the College's commitment to HH Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF)'s wise vision to build a healthier and better educated community and thus securing a prosperous future. WCMC-Q will not spare any effort in implementing "Your Health First" campaign and meet its objectives, said Dr. Sheikh. Concluding, Dr. Sheik thanked the Health Minister, who believed in the importance of this campaign along with the strategic partners. For his part, HE Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and QP Chairman and Managing Director affirmed QP's commitment to achieve the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030. The preventive health care is one of the main pillars of the strategy for QP social responsibility, said HE AL-Sada, expressing pleasure to implement this partnership with WCMC-Q and the SCH within the framework of an unprecedented national initiative of health awareness. He expressed confidence over the great contribution of this campaign in raising the standards of health among Qatari citizens and residents especially those related to preventive health care. While the CEO and general manager of Occidental Qatar Petroleum (Oxy) Steve Kelly, said that Occidental is proud to be a partner in this important campaign, as it consider health as an institutional and personal priority, expressing hope that the company staff along with all residents in Qatar would benefit from this awareness campaign. In turn, Bart Cahir, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar underlined the importance of manpower. The joint work between the Public Health Ministry, the Ministry of Energy and Industry and the private sector to improve people's livelihood reflects the forward-looking vision of the wise leadership in the State of Qatar. CEO of Vodafone Qatar, Richard Daley reminded that Vodafone is a global company deeply rooted in Qatar, expressing pleasure to be among the Partners of the campaign that aims to raise the standard of health care in the State of Qatar. "Your Health First" Campaign will depend in addition to newspapers, magazines, radio and television, on digital and social media for the dissemination of its awareness objectives and for access to the largest number of citizens and residents through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The campaign materials will be prepared in Arabic, English and Urdu. (END)