DUBAI, The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) honoured the winners of the Young Author Award, in a competition for children aged 11-15 years old, with the goal of raising awareness about the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles and promoting a culture of healthy diet and physical activity at a young age, which would help reduce obesity and other related diseases, including diabetes.
The competition also seeks to encourage children to write awareness stories to motivate their peers to embrace the culture of healthy food and physical activity, by delivering the message in a more coherent, uncomplicated and straightforward style.
The awards ceremony, held inside the ministry premises in Dubai, observed the presence of Dr. Hussain Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Public Health Sector, along with representatives of the partners in the competition from the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Ministry of Community Development (MOCD), the Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA), the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and the Fun Box in Sharjah.
“The goal of the Young Author competition is to increase children’s awareness of healthy lifestyles and invest their talents to promote health concepts in an innovative way,” stated Dr. Al Rand, adding that the initiative is part of the Ministry’s directives to promote healthy lifestyles and deliver comprehensive and integrated health care in innovative and sustainable ways to help prevent societal diseases. “It also aids the ministry’s and partners’ efforts in the fight against non-communicable diseases, such as childhood obesity,” he added.
Dr. Al Rand stressed that the UAE Reading Month aims to build an educated society capable of driving the country’s development process by supporting and strengthening the role of families and institutions in instilling a love of reading in children and highlighting its importance in early childhood development.
He pointed out that the ministry is a leading government entity in supporting the national reading strategy through a variety of initiatives, including the “My First Book” campaign, which was developed in cooperation with the “Kalimat” group. The ministry also won the Best Federal Initiative Award for Early Childhood Reading Programme.
In the first phase of the Young Writer Competition, which commenced in June 2021 and drew approximately 302 children from various nationalities, eleven children were named winners. The winning pieces will be published in a special booklet, with five copies printed, in addition to receiving financial rewards.
Source: Emirates News Agency