By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: In a new initiative to educate the community, especially children, about the importance of nutrition and healthy living, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) started a roadshow yesterday at the Corniche.
The ‘Yalla Natural Roadshow’ is part of WCMC-Q’s ‘Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First’ campaign being carried out in collaboration with the Supreme Education Council.
Health, fitness, cooking and gardening experts in the campaign advice and demonstrate to people how to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
The ‘Yalla Natural Trailer’ parked at the Corniche houses organic vegetable plants, including tomatoes, parsley, argugula and brinjal. Farming experts guide visitors on how they can start farming healthy vegetables even in a small space such as a balcony.
Chefs from Qatar Foundation’s Amlak showed the audience how to make a Salsa salad and healthy cold chicken salad; they used organic tomatoes and other vegetables grown in Qatari farms.
Visitors to Yalla Natural also can make a glass of juice by pedalling a bicycle for a few minutes. A special juice stall demonstrates how to make a fresh and nutritious glass of juice from fruits and vegetables.
Ahmed Al Qahtani, a student at WCMC-Q and an athlete, taught visitors how to do simple exercises which can make a difference in one’s lifestyle.
‘Yalla Natural’ will be on today at the Corniche.
Your Health First, a five-year campaign launched by WCMC-Q in 2012, is proving effective by utilising a wide variety of platforms to engage with the public to provide information about healthy eating, exercise and the dangers of unhealthy habits like smoking. These platforms include social media, television programmes, a smartphone app, radio commercials and traditional pamphlets.
The campaign also makes use of interactive events to encourage people to engage in the types of healthy behaviours the initiative aims to promote. Your Health First has organised a healthy cooking event for kids called ‘Your Healthy Chef’, an annual physical sports competition for middle school students called ‘The Challenge’, and has provided greenhouses, gardening equipment and seeds to primary schools across Qatar to teach students the benefits of growing and eating fresh fruit and vegetables. The campaign has also joined forces with Qatar Foundation (QF) to provide healthy menus and incentive schemes to encourage students in QF schools to choose healthy options at mealtimes. Meanwhile, adults are engaged by positioning information booths at strategic locations in shopping malls and through a series of free, interactive health lectures called ‘Ask the Expert’, among several other initiatives.
THE PENINSULA
