Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari receiving the award from WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva, yesterday.
Geneva: Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari and senior leaders from Qatar's healthcare sector took part in the 'Walk the Talk: Health For All Challenge' organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva yesterday.
Ahead of the start of the walk, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, presented Dr. Al Kuwari with a special Director-General's Health Champions 2022 award in recognition of her outstanding advocacy in global health promotion and security.
H E Dr. Al Kuwari was invited as a guest of honour and joined the WHO chief and thousands of members of the local Geneva community at WHOs third Walk the Talk event, held ahead of the 75th World Health Assembly taking place from May 22 to 28 in Geneva.
The Walk the Talk event offered participants the opportunity to walk, run or use a wheelchair over a 3- or 4.2-km route.
In addition to those taking part in person in Geneva, many thousands of people from across the world participated remotely via the Walk the Talk mobile app. The Walk the Talk initiative aims to encourage people to be physically active and mentally well to support their health.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Al Kuwari said: “I would like to thank Dr. Tedros for generously inviting myself and my colleagues from Qatar to be part of this wonderful event. I am deeply grateful to be honoured with the Director-General's Health Champions award, which is testament to the incredible work of tens of thousands of dedicated healthcare professionals in Qatar thanks to the unlimited support of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for the health sector at various levels.
“I am proud of our close collaboration with the WHO, especially through our Healthy FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 - Creating a Legacy for Sport and Health partnership along our friends at FIFA and Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
"Today's event is one of the many activities we are working together on under our partnership's health promotion pillar as we continue our commitment to promote physical and mental health to people around the world.”
“It was my honour to present a 2022 Health Champion award to Dr. Al Kuwari for her leadership and action in promoting the health and safety of people in the State of Qatar,” said Dr. Tedros.
“WHO greatly appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with Qatar on events like Walk the Talk and other major sporting activities, like the FIFA World Cup being held later this year in Doha. Such initiatives demonstrate the great potential of sport to help people enjoy higher levels of physical and mental health.”
In October this year, the Ministry of Public Health and WHO will collaborate to host Walk the Talk Doha, building on the success of the Geneva events to bring this initiative to Qatar for the first time. Details of the October event will be announced soon.
