The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) participated in the celebration of the Gulf School Health Day. To mark the occasion, the MoPH handed out about 15,000 health awareness pamphlets in Arabic and English to 321 government and private schools, with the aim of raising health awareness and promoting healthy lifestyles among male and female students at all academic levels in Qatar. Distribution efforts are still ongoing to cover the remaining schools in the country.
The awareness materials included several important health topics, most notably, healthy food, the importance of drinking water, preventing the risks of exposure to intense sunlight, proper sneezing and coughing etiquette, the benefits of physical activity, and the risks associated with the overuse of electronic devices, among other diverse health issues.
Dr Salah Alyafei, Acting Director of the Health Promotion Department at the MoPH, stated that enhancing health awareness activities is part of implementing the Third National Health Strategy 2024-2030 priority (Improved Population Health and Wellbeing), which aims to foster a more health-conscious population. He stressed the importance of encouraging all age groups, particularly students, to adopt healthy lifestyles and promote sound health behaviours to create a healthy society.
Dr Alyafei added that proper health education and awareness should start from a young age to benefit current and future generations. This effort aligns with the projects, programs, and initiatives implemented by the MoPH in co-operation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to ensure their maximum effectiveness and achieve their objectives.
The Gulf School Health Day is one of the Gulf regions awareness days dedicated to providing school health education and addressing adolescent and youth health. Each year, it focuses on crucial awareness and educational topics, as well as urgent health challenges and issues, whether in the school environment or Gulf communities in general. The goal is to raise and promote health awareness within the Gulf, educating students about health problems and how to prevent them.
