With the attendance of the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) health ministers and its Secretary General Dr. Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al Zayani, His Excellency the Minister of Health, Mr. Ahmad bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb, has launched today morning (Wednesday) the website of the famous TV and radio awareness show "Salamtek".
The launching ceremony was held on the sidelines of the inauguration of the GCC Health Ministers Conference, which is organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers Council under the theme (Measuring Health Systems Performance: the Way to Excellence).
The Director-General of the Executive Board of GCC Health Ministers Council, Dr. Tawfiq bin Ahmad Khoja, said that the show was launched to be a practical culmination of the efforts exerted by the Executive Board in the field of health awareness through the most important means of contemporary mass communication, namely TV and radio, adding that the show managed to achieve, during a short period of time, many hopes and ambitions and positively affected the health behaviors of citizens.
He noted that preparations are currently underway to launch the fifth stage of the show to be held under the theme (Fighting Non-Communicable Diseases), adding that a contract was signed to that effect between the Executive Board, the GCC Joint Program Production Institution and Al-Mahalliyya Public Affairs, at the Executive Board's headquarters in Riyadh on Saturday Rajab 9th, 1432H, corresponding to June 11th, 2011.
Dr. Khoja pointed out that the strategic goals of this stage include reducing the prevalence rate of the endemic and potential diseases and raising awareness about risks of diseases, especially mental and social disorders and ways to prevent them, as well as preventive measures to protect health of individuals and families; that's to be added to modifying the individual and communal behavior towards the use of public utilities and environmental resources, encouraging personal contact, exchanging health information among the different categories of citizens, urging citizens to resort to medical advice, making use of the available health services in the member states and shedding light on the high-class services they are providing.
The contract stipulates production of a number of TV and radio episodes and promos, including 53 TV episodes, 100 TV promos, 10 radio episodes and 50 radio promos. This stage will focus on ways of fighting the non-communicable and infectious diseases, maternity and children, years of schooling (children and youngsters), people with special needs and family relationships. The implementation period of this stage is two years, after which the show will be broadcasted live on all TV and radio stations in the Gulf States. The show will be broadcasted at times of high audiences, taking into account the rules followed by these stations with regard to broadcasting of their programs and circulation of their programming plans.