Healthy Caribbean Coalition - Belize: World Health
Day Multi-sectorial Health Fair
World Health Day is celebrated in April each year to highlight a theme of public health significance. This year’s theme “Urbanization and Health” will provide an opportunity to focus on the many health challenges related to water, environment, sanitation, violence and injury, non communicable diseases and their risk factors including tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical activity, harmful use of alcohol as well as the risks associated with disease outbreaks in cities and towns.
World Health Day should be seen as a symbolic day of sustained commitment to incorporate health from multiples sectors of the population while engaging a wide scope of partners.
As part of World Health Day festivities, the global campaign entitled “1000 Cities, 1000 Lives” has been launched to encourage cities, towns, neighborhoods and local authorities to conduct health- promoting activities on or around World Health Day (the week of 7-11 April, 2010). The goal of the 1000 Cities campaign is to open public spaces to health, for example by closing off portions of streets to motorized vehicles and opening them up to people having community forums, promoting more active civil society participation in local planning and governance, initiating clean-up campaigns and conducting work-place and school based health initiatives.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with PAHO/WHO and the Belize City Council will be organizing a multi-sectorial Health Fair on April 7th, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We are planning to cleanup a dilapidated park (Fred Westby Park by Yarborough) and conduct opening ceremonies and the fair there. We are inviting and encouraging your organization to participate either in setting up a health booth to provide services or showcase products depicting health and wellness. Invited persons will be contacted for confirmation in this initiative.
Additional information can be gotten from Ministry of Health PR officer,
Ms. Beverly Phillips at 822-2326 or bphillips@health.gov.bz
We look forward to your participation.