Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, and senior leaders from Qatar’s healthcare sector, today took part in the World Health Organization’s Walk the Talk: Health For All Challenge in Geneva.
H.E Dr Al Kuwari was invited as a guest of honor and joined Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General, and thousands of members of the local Geneva community at WHO’s third Walk the Talk event, held ahead of the 75th World Health Assembly taking place from 22 to 28 May in Geneva.
Ahead of the start of the walk, Dr Tedros presented H.E 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.
The Walk the Talk event offered participants the opportunity to walk, run or use a wheelchair over a 3- or 4.2-kilometer 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, H.E 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 honored 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 His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar, 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 & 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,” added H.E Dr. Al Kuwari.
Dr Tedros, in presenting the award, highlighted WHO’s partnership with the Qatar Ministry of Public health on the Healthy FIFA World Cup 2022, and described how it is making a difference in helping mega sporting events be both healthy and safe.
“It was my honor 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.
