Under the auspices of His Excellency the Acting Minister of Health, Eng. Adel bin Mohamed Faqih, His Excellency the Vice Minister for Planning and Development, Dr. Muhammad Khoshaim, handed out the awards of the health contest held under the title "Create & Inspire", during the ceremony which was held on this occasion on Thursday evening at Jeddah Hilton Hotel.
Meanwhile, His Excellency expressed his happiness for the positive results and creative ideas achieved by this awareness contest, which comes in line with the proclivity of the Ministry of Health (MOH) to promote sound and healthy lifestyles, as well as intensifying all the efforts to reduce chronic diseases. He has underscored the MOH’s keenness to activate the awareness programs and activities, for maintaining the health and safety, as well as protecting everyone against diseases, Allah willing.
Within the same vein, Dr. Khoshaim noted that the Award aims at reaching, via social networks, the segments of society by introducing their projects and practical ideas, to be applied on the ground, by leaning on the support and potentials of the community’s experts and devotees.
He also extended to attendees the greetings of His Excellency the Acting minister of Health, and his wishes for the award to be a success and to achieve the ultimate objective of promoting health in our beloved kingdom in order to have a healthy society free from diseases and illnesses.
Dr. Khoshaim highlighted the increasing rates of some diseases in the Kingdom, such as obesity, diabetes and smokers amounting to 30%, 20% and 25% respectively, and the chronic diseases resulting from them, such as heart diseases and tumors, not to mention that 70% of the population do not practice walking exercise.
He noted in his speech that such phenomena require everyone to work hand in hand in an effort to confront them, and, hence, bring them to an end.
Likewise, His Excellency highlighted in his speech the role of the mother in preparing a healthy generation, raising them in a sound, healthy way, consolidating healthy food habits, as well as protecting them from diseases. In the meantime, he reiterated the importance of the early detection of diseases, including breast cancer, as the treatment is more likely to bring about positive results; and this applies to all other diseases.
Concluding his speech, he called upon both individuals and groups to cooperate with MOH to demystify the health problems, and to entrench in new generations the sound, healthy practices relevant to food, drug, prevention and the early detection of diseases.
On his part, the CEO of the Healthcare Development Holding Company, the strategic sponsor and developer of this first-of-its-type contest, Dr. Wael Kaawach, said that “this awareness contest of community health reflects the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles for all community segments, considering the community part of the solution rather than the problem.”
He underlined that “the idea underlying the contest emanated from the values and ethics of our holy religion, which exhorts adopting a balanced lifestyle. And it goes without saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
“This contest comes within the framework of the Ministry's awareness efforts, proceeding from its desire to urge individuals (both citizens and residents) to participate in producing the messages and materials relating to the control and protection against diseases,” he added. “That is to be added to encouraging all segments of the society to adopt sound healthy behaviors, as well as transforming the ideas of our promising generation into projects, which will help change community lifestyle.”
Within the same context, Dr. Kaawach revealed that the contest seeks to adopting the talents and competencies, and encouraging the creative ideas to participate in the health awareness.
"This Award is organized and developed by MOH in collaboration with both the Healthcare Development Holding Company, and TAM Limited Development Company, which work together to benefit from the community potentials, including young people, and transform their thoughts and ideas into practical projects; in an endeavor to bring about a pleasant paradigm shift and a healthy lifestyle," Dr. Kaawach elaborated.
It's worth mentioning here that the award is meant to motivate the society members to submit at least 2,000 ideas of their proposals and innovative ideas, given that participation in the award is open for both citizens and residents all over the Kingdom; those who have ideas and projects that may contribute to the improvement of a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, the winners were determined via an e-voting system in which all the community members participate.
The winner project of the first place received a cash prize of SR 150,000, and the winner of second place received a cash prize of SR 100,000, while the winner of third place received a cash prize of SR 75,000, and the winner of fourth place received a cash prize of SR 50,000, and finally the winner of fifth place received a cash prize of SR 25,000.
Furthermore, the winning projects of the institutions and companies received honorary awards, taking the form of a gold medal for the first place, a silver medal for the second place, and a bronze medal for the third place, while the ten winning ideas received a cash prize of SR 10,000 each.