His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah honored yesterday (Monday) winners of the Awareness Award «Wa3i» in its 3rd season.
Addressing the ceremony, organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the GCC Health Council, Al-Rabiah said, "14 years of the average life expectancy of an individual are lost due to some health risks such as: smoking, obesity, unhealthy lifestyle, air pollution, traffic accidents and lack of physical activity". Underlining the importance of raising awareness, he said eight diabetic foot amputations surgeries done every day due to lack of awreness.
"MOH seeks to become a health promoter rather than service provider and to make health awreness the main cause of a healthy life for every person. In line with the Kingdom Vision 2030, one of the main objectives of MOH is to increase the average life expectancy from 74 to 80 years", he said.
Referring to a study conducted by University of Columbia, he said those whose parents were smokers are three times more likely to become smokers, pointing out that smoking takes 10 years off your life expectancy.
"40% of those proved to be incompatible for marriage have ignored premarital screening results; thus spending a lot of time in hospitals with their sick children, and the reason for this is the lack of awareness", adds Al-Rabiah.
Al-Rabiah reviewed a number of awareness campaigns launched by MOH and their profound impact in modifying the health behavior of community members, promoting their health awareness and encouraging them to adopt healthy lifestyles. He pointed out to the cooperation agreements with several partners including the partnership with the Ministry of Education to add the "Awareness Dosage" book issued by MOH via "QE code" in the curriculum of 5th and 6th primary grades and 1st intermediate grade.
For his part, Director-General of GCC Health Council, Mr. Suleiman Al-Dakheil has broken good news for GCC citizens that the popular TV show "Salamatak" will be relaunched after 18 years of interruption. This good news is coinciding with the announcement of winners of «Wa3i» Award, organized by MOH for the third consecutive time. It is a partnership between the Council and MOH in activation of the initiatives adopted by GCC health ministers and with participations of thousands of competitors.
On the other hand, Director-General of Communication, Relations and Awareness at MOH, and Supervisor-General of «Wa3i» Award, Eng. Anas Al-Hameed said that the Health Minister aspires to see the award spreading all over the world, adding that more than 16,000 participants have registered for all tracks of the award. He said the participants have contributed to raising awareness through the award tracks, noting that members of the winners' selection committees had spent long times to choose the best.
At the end of the ceremony, the winners of the award were announced. The first place and grand award worth SR 150,000 for the short film went to Younis Al-Merbati from the Kingdom of Bahrain. The second place worth SR 100,000 won by Ayman Bukhari, Saudi Arabia, and the third place of SR 80,000 went to Miss Hasna Al-Hassan from Saudi Arabia.
The first place for the motion graphic track and SR 70,000 went to Miss Munerah Al-Atiq from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Jamaluddin from Lebanon won the first place and SR 30,000 for the infographic designs and the first place for the photo track and SR 50,000 went to Mohammed Bahelaiwa from Yemen. At school participation level, Mansour bin Ali from Al-Ula secondary school won the first place and SR 100,000. The audience award worth SR 50,000 went to Hasna Al-Hassan.
It is noteworthy that the award total cash prizes worth more than one million riyals for the five tracks, namely: short film, motion graphic, infographic designs, photography, painting and school participation. Three other prizes were allocated for those with the largest number of public votes on all tracks.