The Health Promotion Department, HPD, at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah (SCFA) has recently launched the “Sohbati 2020” Program in collaboration with the University of Sharjah.

This year’s edition is being held remotelythrough a number of training workshops by health education specialists. The program aims to spread health awareness among adolescents and to encourage them to adopt healthy lifestyles, as well as to qualify them to be ambassadors among their peers in various domains such as health and nutrition.

The month-long program consists of 9 nine workshops is targeting male and female adolescents aged from 15 to 25 years. The workshops which will shed light on the widely spread misconceptions among community members, in addition to developing networking and communication skills of the participants to help them in their mission as health education ambassadors equipped with the necessary skills needed to design and implement awareness-raising programs.

Commenting on the launch of “Sohbati 2020” Program, Her Excellency Iman Rashid Saif, Director, HPD said: “Since this year’s edition of “Sohbati 2020” Program is being held remotely, we have developed a full-fledged system of e-training tools and interactive programs, as well as a series of virtual workshops by health education specialists. Everything is all set to graduate a batch of young health educators and give them the opportunity to actively participate in accomplishing the vision of the Emirate of Sharjah to be a healthy, children-friendly, and adolescents-friendly city, as well as a disease-free environment, pursuant to the vision and directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah.

“Sohbati Program comes as part of the HPD’s commitment to enhancing health-related concepts for adolescents and developing this knowledge skills, so as to shoulder their responsibility towards their community and to be a role model for their peers at home, school, and society,” she concluded.

A wide spectrum of health topics will be covered through the workshops. This includes public health, mental health, food-related healthy behaviors, how to adopt a healthy lifestyle, life and technology skills, and first aid. Recently, two training workshops were organized on the concept and benefits of healthy nutrition, healthy cooking methods, and its role in ensuring healthy nutrition.

Those who consummate the program requirements will be given a graduate certificate. These requirements include the attendance of not less than 75% of the workshops, attendance of the full-time workshop, as well as the presentation of an awareness project for one of the concepts discussed during the program. After the completion, the graduates are committed to cooperating with the HPD for a year to deliver workshops and other educational materials for community members, in addition to attending a monthly meeting for the program graduates.