Afrigather The world’s hottest sporting occasion is about to happen in Qatar. The World Health Organization and the Qatar Ministry of Public Health are working to make this yr’s soccer (soccer) championship the launchpad for a world well being and security marketing campaign – and a mannequin for selling these messages at different main sporting occasions.
Set to be held in Doha from 20 November to 18 December, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ is a singular platform to advertise well being internationally and to speak the message that sport and well being are intertwined. Working collectively, we will make these video games a celebration of pleasure, well-being and solidarity for billions of individuals world wide.
Our partnership on Sport For Well being has two primary targets:
- to work with key companions to assist make the 2022 World Cup – the primary to be held within the Center East – wholesome and protected, and
- to seize and share classes realized with our companions and organizers of future massive sporting occasions.
The partnership started final October, supported by FIFA and the Supreme Committee for Supply and Legacy, Qatar’s host committee for the video games, as a part of a drive to advertise international well being by means of soccer. We’ve collaborated to advertise bodily well being and well-being in a number of methods. These included selling well being and dietary consciousness throughout the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan; participating within the third version of the “Stroll the Discuss: Well being For All Problem” in Geneva, the place the WHO is headquartered; and elevating consciousness of the harms attributable to smoking on ‘World No Tobacco Day’.
By specializing in bodily exercise, wholesome diets and diet, tobacco management, psychological well being, and well being safety, we’re working to offer steerage on assist enhance the bodily and psychological well being of all folks globally by means of sports activities.
Sport for Well being goals to achieve billions of individuals by means of cooperation and data.
Our objectives are formidable, and based mostly on three key pillars: first, selling well being by means of strategic collaboration with governments and sporting organizations, reaching billions of individuals by means of soccer and different sports activities; second, making main sporting occasions protected for followers, gamers and employees; and third, sharing data with the general public to assist them make wholesome way of life decisions.
The partnership is leveraging this yr’s FIFA World Cup to advertise the well being advantages of sport and develop new instruments to achieve folks of all ages, significantly youth. As companions, we now have been busy creating science-based steerage to speak the significance of bodily exercise for all.
We all know that common bodily exercise, whether or not organized sports activities or just strolling and collaborating in bodily actions, is linked to each psychological and bodily well being. Being lively with others may also assist promote a way of inclusion and group. Whether or not you might be concerned with high-intensity exercises and even simply gardening, each effort counts in the direction of a wholesome physique and thoughts.
To additional promote wholesome lives, we’re underscoring the significance of diet, by demonstrating the advantages of providing wholesome meals decisions at massive sporting occasions. On the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, smoke-free stadiums and bans on tobacco advertising and marketing will assist to guard folks from this lethal product.
Conserving sporting occasions protected is a basic pillar of the mission.
Measures applied on the World Cup shall be an instance of defending the well being of followers at future massive sporting occasions. From making certain implementation of mass gathering protocols inside and outside stadiums, to adhering to regulate measures to guard folks from infectious illness outbreaks, we’re dedicated to working with companions to make sure all mandatory steps are taken to make sporting occasions, such because the FIFA World Cup, protected and safe.
Teamwork is important for achievement in sports activities. The identical is true for shielding and selling well being. We’re dedicated to striving collectively – for this yr’s FIFA World Cup and past – to leverage the worldwide energy of sport to assist folks lead the healthiest lives potential.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is Director-Basic of WHO, a specialised company of the United Nations. Her Excellency Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari is the Minister of Public Well being of the State of Qatar and managing director of the nation’s largest public well being care supplier.
