JEDDAH — Effat University, one of the leading educational female institutions in Jeddah, in cooperation with OSN, a pay-TV network, held “Health Day” on the university premises here Sunday. The “Health Day” was held with the aim to inspire students on the importance of adopting wellness and a healthy lifestyle. Approximately 1,000 students attended the event. Speaker Lina Al-Maeena, founder and director of a sports club, Jeddah United, shed light on the importance of physical activities and sports in women wellness. Alaa' Salman, a student of medicine in the fourth year at King Abdulaziz University is founder and director of “It's Your Choice”, an inspiring show on YouTube. Another speaker was Dr. Mohammad Hamid Aldeen from the “I Quit Smoking” (IQS) initiative and Hamed Malik, chief marketing officer, OSN. Alaa' Salman spoke about the benefits of healthy life. She and her colleagues thought of using media like YouTube to raise the community awareness on the healthy life in a simple way that reaches everyone. They began their YouTube show last summer and have now completed 6 episodes on diet. Alaa' displayed a video on the benefits of healthy food and life where the seven factors for better life were displayed; sports, low calorie, low fat, and low salt foods, controlling blood pressure, cholesterol and weight, stop smoking, protecting your skin from sun ray and routine medical checkup. Alaa' also displayed statistics by Ministry of Health indicating that 418,000 health cases were diagnosed in 2010 with expected to reach 1,130,000 cases in 2020. All the cases are connected to diseases that can be prevented with the seven tips on health. Dr. Mohammad Mohie Hamid Aldeen from “I Quit Smoking” (IQS) initiative spoke about the high rate of female smokers in Saudi Arabia numbering 1,100,000 and ranked the highest in the Gulf region and the fifth worldwide. Male smokers numbered 6,000,000 in the kingdom. He also spoke about the negative impact of smoking cigarettes and “shisha” and the therapy sessions conducted by the “IQS” initiative that produce positive results from the first session. Lina Al-Maeena, director of Jeddah United, talked about the privileges of sports for women, the disadvantages of non-participation and the complications of obesity. She also praised the Ministry of Heath and their sponsorship of the “Everest Women” and the campaign on the importance of sports in combating breast cancer. “Since 60% of the Kingdom citizens are youth, we work to encourage athletics not only as individual sports but for team and group sports and make participants aware of sports benefits and positive impact on their lives,” Al-Maeena said. “Nowadays, more awareness is seen. Empty land lots are now prepared and used as playgrounds for youth sports,” she continued. Al-Maeena also hosted the captains of the basketball team, swimming team and the manager of the sports club in Effat University. They all spoke about the role of sports on the physical and social spheres. The group working on “It's Your Choice” show are all students of medicine and they believe that to spread awareness in the society everyone has to play a role including the audience. Their session was all about medical and scientific aspects of fitness and diet in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Hamed Malik, chief marketing officer OSN, extended his company's appreciation to Effat University for taking up this cause. “This initiative ties in perfectly with OSN CSR campaign — “Live More” — which encourages families to adopt a more active and well balanced lifestyle” Malik said. Malik also presented decoders to three lucky participants.
