Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has become a strategic partner a major health campaign launched by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC – Qatar), a partnership between Cornell University and Qatar Foundation.

The campaign Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First, which aims to encourage people to make positive lifestyle choices, already has several high-profile partners, but the inclusion of QOC will bring sporting expertise of an international level.

For QOC, the campaign is an opportunity to widen the outreach work it already does in encouraging people to lead active lives.

Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, secretary general of QOC, said: “Through this strategic partnership with WCMC-Q, QOC will be able to contribute to building a healthy society. In fact, QOC and the Sahtak Awalan campaign have similar goals in that we both seek to promote the physical well-being of the individuals upon whom the future of our nation rests.

As part of the new agreement, QOC will provide Sahtak Awalan with access to sports facilities and will collaborate with community activities, helping to inspire the nation – and future generations – to participate in sport and exercise.

Dr Javaid Sheikh, Dean of WCMC-Q, said: “This is tremendous news and can only have a positive impact on the health of the population. When two organizations come together for a common purpose the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts and I am confident that through working together we can do even more to create a healthy society able to contribute to a knowledge-based economy.”

Through partnering with QOC, WCMC-Q hopes to be able to instill some of the Olympic spirit into its campaign and encourage participants in Sahtak Awalan to embrace that same spirit. QOC will provide support for the campaign at sports events.

Sahtak Awalan was launched in June 2012 with the aim of educating the population of Qatar about unhealthy lifestyle choices and encouraging them to take positive action. The five-year campaign is targeted at all nationalities living in the country but has a special focus on youth. – TradeArabia News Service