PHCC launches awareness campaign for school students

Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), in co-operation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, will start on Monday its awareness campaign to highlight to school students the importance of maintaining health and leading a healthy lifestyle.

The campaign will be carried out by a comprehensive medical team comprised of nutritionists, health educators, family doctors, dentists, nursing supervisors as well as school health programmes and services.

Executive Director of Corporate Communication Department at PHCC Huda al-Wahidi highlighted the importance of carrying out health campaigns at the beginning of the new academic year to spread the health culture and raise the level of health awareness among students, all part of the awareness and educational plan stemming from the National Health Strategy to promote school health through prevention.

She added that the two-week campaign is one of the most important programmes for PHCC to implement the National Health Strategy which aims to consolidate the concepts and patterns of a healthy lifestyle.

The strategy also aims to emphasise the health steps to reduce the spread of infectious diseases among school students and the importance of choosing proper school meals and its reflection on student achievements. The campaign also focuses on the basics of cleanliness such as nail trimming, hand washing and dental hygiene, in addition to the basic elements of maintaining the students' physical and psychological health and the importance of the school nurse's role.

For his part, Director of Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Dr. Abdulaziz Ali al-Saadi said his department aims to provide a healthy and safe environment to students in order to maintain their physical, psychological and social health and safety. This takes place through implementing preventative health initiatives, programmes and awareness campaigns to instil a healthy lifestyle, spread guidelines and basic health rules within schools and ensure its implementation.