Jawaher Al Qasimi opens 8th edition of ‘My Health Conference 2020’

H.H. Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of H.H. the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, on Tuesday inaugurated the 8th edition of “Sehati (My Health) Conference”, which is virtually organized by the Health Promotion Department (HPD).

Held under the theme of “A Healthy Environment for Children & Adolescents”, the three-day event brings together major Arab and international health institutions in addition to 23 high-profile speakers, including Arab and foreign doctors and experts concerned with children’s physical and mental health.

The conference, which was staged in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), in partnership with the University of Sharjah (UoS), will discuss eight pressing health issues that revolve around the health of children and adolescents through seven sessions and 14 working papers.

Topics to be discussed include methods of enhancing the physical, nutritional and psychological health of children and adolescents, mechanisms of creating a healthy environment for distance learning, and the importance of vaccines in fighting infectious diseases. The event will also shed light on chronic, rheumatic, and cardiovascular diseases among children and adolescents, and ways to treat and prevent them.

Health Priorities In her opening address, Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi said: “It is with great pleasure that I stand witness to today’s event and attend the inauguration of the 8th edition of this conference, which has evolved over the years into a much-acclaimed world-class event for improving health practices in society. This conference has started with an idea and a movement concerned with women’s health and then enriched its program with sessions discussing men’s health and later expanded its scope to include the overall family health.

Over the course of the past years, the Health Promotion Department team excreted great efforts to elevate the stature of the conference and successfully attracted greater attention from international institutions that truly believe in the same message that we do and today; these institutions have become an indispensable partner to the “My Health Conference”, supporting its goals and programs and helping realize exceptional results that draw a sustainable and supportive roadmap for family and community health,”.

“The health responsibility thrown on our shoulders today has been doubled due to the “Covid-19” pandemic. It has become more important than ever to prioritise the health of our sons and daughters and introduce new health methods that ensure the sustainability of physical and psychological health of children and adolescents after months of home quarantine, which resulted in an unprecedented decline in the physical activity of children and caused their food habits to change drastically.

With these changes creating complicated health obstacles, it has become more urgent than ever to cooperate and coordinate with parents to educate them on how to resume a healthy lifestyle and how to encourage children and adolescents to adopt healthy behaviour at home and school,” she added.

Lauding the relentless efforts made by all organisers of the event, Sheikha Jawaher expressed her gratitude and thanks to the World Health Organization (WHO), Regional NCD Alliance, Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), Ministry of Education, Sharjah Private Education Authority, and all bodies and institutions for being such great partners and sponsors to the event and for their cooperation to support the goals and strategies of the conference.

“This cooperation has been very successful. In addition to providing great services and helping promote health awareness, it also guaranteed following the best practices that can secure safe and sustainable health for the community” she added.

The inaugural session was attended by Dr. Hussein Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Undersecretary of Health Centers and Clinics Sector at MoHAP, Dr. Amina Almarzooqi, A/Dean College of Health Sciences at the University of Sharjah, Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, Chairperson of the Sharjah Private Education Authority, and Iman Rashid Saif, Director of the Health Promotion Department (HPD) at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah.

Also present were Dr Ibtihal Fadhil, Chairperson of the Eastern Mediterranean NCD Alliance, Dr Dalia Samhouri, Regional Emergency Director, WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr Samar El Feky, Regional Technical Officer for Community-Based Initiatives and Healthy Settings, Regional Office of Eastern Mediterranean WHO, and Dr Ayoub Al Jawaldeh, Regional Adviser in Nutrition, WHO, Regional Office for Eastern mediterranian Region – NCDs Department, as well as a group of representatives of local and international health and media institutions and bodies.

Responding to emergencies Speaking during the conference, Iman Rashid Saif said: “The 8th edition of Sehati conference is the fruit of the wise vision and directives of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, who has always believed in the importance of investing in human resources and placed sustainable health at the top of the emirate’s social, economic and development agenda”.

She expressed her thanks and appreciation to Sheikha Jawaher for her tireless and continuous patronage of the event, and for her wise directives, which has illuminated the path for the conference management to achieve their ultimate goal of improving health-related behavior for all members of society.

“The conference comes at a time when the UAE is wrapping up its efforts to address the repercussions of Covid-19 to provide a better and healthy environment for children and adolescents. The UAE is doing its utmost to guarantee the safety of its people and protect them from the risks of diseases and epidemics”, she added.

“We will spare no effort to enhance the role played by schools to better engage them in responding to emergencies and reducing the spread of diseases and pandemics. This is in line with the UAE Vision 2021, which seeks to reduce the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents, encourage all UAE schools to implement the new standards introduced by the Healthy Schools Program,” Saif noted, adding that Emirate of Sharjah has been the first emirate to implement the updated standards for the Healthy Schools Program, which focuses on distance learning, crisis and emergency systems.”

For her part, Aisha Saif Alsiri, Director of Health and Physical Fitness, Ministry of Education, expressed her gratitude to Sheikha Jawaher for her sustained support to all initiatives and programs concerned with the health of children and adolescents, lauding the strenuous efforts made by the HPD to organise such significant event which aims to enhance the overall health of the community with a key focus on students.

“The Ministry of Education’s participation in the event comes out of its keenness to secure a safe and healthy environment for students and support the Healthy Schools Program, which aims to improve public health in schools and promote a healthy school environment in order to proactively address different diseases and epidemics and limit their spread among children and adolescents,” Alsiri said.

Five Working Papers Two panel discussions have been held on the first day of the conference discussing five working papers. Themed “The safe return to schools amid COVID-19”, the first panel session, which was moderated by Dr Ibtihal Fadhil, addressed two working papers presented by Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi and Dr Dalia Samhouri , focusing on the most important global health and preventive practices used to ensure a safe return to educational institutions and shed light on the lessons learned on how to deal with crises in Sharjah schools.

Moderated by Dr. Amina Almarzooqi, the second session, which was held under the theme of “Promoting the physical and nutritional health of children and adolescents”, discussed three working papers presented by Dr Ayoub Al Jawaldeh, Dr. Ahmed Mohammad Abdul Malik, Family Medicine Consultant – RCGP Fellowship, Kuwait and Dr. Osama Kamel Ali Al Alla, Sports Health Specialist, Sports Abu Dhabi Council.

The three working papers focused on ways to address the nutritional challenges among children and adolescents and the importance of adopting a healthy diet, as well as the pros and cons of nutritional supplements, and the importance of physical activity for children and adolescents and its role in supporting their immune system and enhancing their resistance to different diseases.

The conference, which will run until November 26, will also feature two more training workshops that target parents, administrative and teaching staff in order to provide them with the most important international advice and guidelines approved in the field of promoting the physical and psychological health of children.

The second day of the conference will also involve a training workshop for media professionals to be presented by the international media development organization “Internews”, entitled Towards a healthy press environment. The workshop aims to update media professionals and field correspondents on the most important technologies and global practices in covering news related to “Covid-19” pandemic.

WAM