World Health Day was celebrated here at the Al-Hamra Corniche Thursday with local officials and members of the public taking part in exercise activities organized by the Stop TB group with the cooperation of the ministries of health and culture and information and patronized by Health Minister Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja. World Health Day is a global UN-WHO event being celebrated this year under the banner “1,000 cities – 1,000 lives” and Thursday's events were an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of making Saudi cities healthier. The global goals of the campaign are to open up public spaces for health activities, town hall meetings, cleanup campaigns, or closing off portions of streets to motorized vehicles in 1,000 cities and are focused on urbanization and health events organized worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities. Dr. Sami Badawood, Director of Jeddah Health Affairs, pointed out that the theme of this year's World Health Day is the improvement of health in the world's urban areas. “Half of the world's population live in cities and this number will only increase in the future. We know that there are many negative effects of living in urban areas, such as, air pollution, unhealthy dietary habits and lack of exercise. That is why the theme of today's event is developing a healthy lifestyle in a healthy environment,” Badawood told the audience. He emphasized the need for members of the public of all ages, both male and female, to engage in exercise such as walking or jogging and to change their dietary habits. He also pointed out that a healthy lifestyle starts from the person himself, and that no one should wait for health institutes or government departments to help them. “It is your health and you have to keep yourself healthy, and after seeing so many youngsters participating in today's event, I hope that one day Jeddah will be one of the healthier cities in the world,” he said. Badawood added that it was not possible to raise public awareness in a one-day event, and “that is why we plan to continue this health day for the whole year in order to promote a healthy environment”. “This is not only the job of the health ministry. It is everyone's job to promote awareness. We are going to hold awareness programs in shopping malls and other public places to tell people how to develop a healthy lifestyle, and we will continue the campaign for a whole year,” he explained. Saud Al-Sheikhe, director of the Makkah branch of the Ministry of Culture and Information, said, “My message for all citizens is that walking is the best exercise and they should take care of their health and that of their family as exercise is the main weapon for fighting against disease.” The organizers of the event were pleased with the public response. “We were expecting a large number of people for today's event so we decided to do it in an open area so the general public could participate. I feel that the message of health awareness will spread rapidly,” said Mohammed Bakhriba, the founder of the Stop TB group. “As one day is not enough, we are planning to have similar events once a month,” he added.
