Sharjah has officially been confirmed as the first healthy city in the Middle East by the World Health Organization (WHO), based on the new criteria set by the WHO Healthy Cities project. His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, supreme council member and ruler of Sharjah, received WHO’s Healthy City Adoption Citation from Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean. Dr. Sheikh Sultan said, “The healthy city designation is part of a growing list of accomplishments for Sharjah, which has set up a seed bank, established natural sanctuaries to protect endangered species, and launched tourism projects that serve the biodiversity of the emirate, in addition to enacting laws to deal with environmental violations.” According to WHO officials, for over a period of three years, Sharjah has been able to meet 88 percent of the 80 criteria for membership in the Healthy Cities project, where above 80 percent is the minimum requirement set by the WHO. Sharjah will also be a regional training center for other cities seeking an endorsement to join the program.
Sharjah has taken a lot of initiatives to improve the health, safety, and well-being of the people in the city. It has also upgraded its transport infrastructure and embraced internationally-recognized standards for environmental practices and waste management.
Together, let us pledge to fight preventable diseases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, announced on January 25, 2011, that they would work together to provide life-saving vaccinations to children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The foundation would purchase and deliver vital vaccines that would save Afghan and Pakistani children and prevent diseases throughout their lifetime. These vaccines protect children from the biggest killers of kids aged under five, including pneumonia, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), which causes meningitis. The following are the words of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed and Bill Gates regarding the subject:
As stated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, “Like all children, the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan deserve the quality of health and opportunities that childhood immunization can provide. The personal, community, national, and international benefits that will result from a generation growing up protected from preventable diseases have the potential to resonate for generations to come.”
Likewise, Bill Gates asserted that, “Vaccines protect children from many life-threatening childhood diseases, providing the best way to give a child a healthy start to life. This partnership is a powerful example of how collaboration by the global community can help build a healthier, more stable future for Afghan and Pakistani children, their families, and communities.”
Although the incidence of polio has decreased by 99 percent during the past 20 years across the globe, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where polio transmission has never been stopped. Hence, children in these countries are especially vulnerable to preventable diseases, such as polio and pneumonia.
On December 7, 2015, the Heroes of Polio Eradication (HOPE) Awards were presented in Abu Dhabi by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bill Gates to recognize the incredible dedication of those who have worked tirelessly, even placing themselves in danger, to eradicate the disease around the world.
On this occasion, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said, “sharing the hope that all vulnerable children around the world will get equal opportunities in living and accessing treatment against diseases and epidemics, we meet today to recognize the efforts of a number of heroes who have created a new glimpse of hope for children in the world.”
The Big Heart Foundation is a Sharjah-based humanitarian charity, which provides worldwide funding for people in need. The foundation believes in the need for community engagement in alleviating the suffering of refugees and underprivileged people.
TBHF started a medical clinic at the Za’atari camp in Jordan and seeks to provide Syrian refugees with 24-hour access to essential health-care services.
Mariam Al Hammadi, director of Salam Ya Seghar, a TBHF initiator, said, “The need to provide health-care facilities in the Zaatari camp is a pressing one as more than four years have passed since the camp was established, and maintaining people’s health is an important issue.”
The foundation has launched a fund-raising campaign to help Syrian refugees survive the harsh winter. Regarding this initiative, Mariam Al Hammadi said, “We launched this campaign as a collective initiative to support refugees. Charity and goodness are deeply rooted in the Emirati society, and this campaign provides an opportunity for all of us to contribute to helping refugees who are in even greater need during the bitterly cold winter months.”
I founded the Rashid Alleem Premier League back in 2016 as an enthusiastic approach towards the goal of good health and well-being. Also, as I mentioned in my book The SEWA Way, one of SEWA’s employees, Sayed Tousifur Rahman, Chief Technology Officer, came up with the idea of forming a cricket team with the aim of spreading positive energy and promoting a healthy environment in society. He very passionately explained to me that SEWA is home to amazing cricketers and believed that he would get a stunning response for this initiative. He sent out an e-mail on January 3, 2016, inviting interested candidates/cricket enthusiasts. Within 12 hours, he had received responses from over 100 employees who were interested in forming and play for the team. It was incredible! It is worth mentioning here that during this process, we got to know Iftikhar Ali, an unsung hero of SEWA. He has been donning the hat of a cricket umpire for 28 years (10 years in international cricket).
Quite a veteran! He has umpired several domestic and international cricket matches and has coached many budding umpires. I met him personally and was amazed to know that he has been in SEWA for 38 years, and he confessed that there had never been any extracurricular activity in our organization before. His words were, “I am lucky to have a chairman who recognizes such efforts.”
RPL is a platform that provides people an opportunity to cherish their interest with a mission of bettering society. The tournament’s first edition was held on June 30–July 3, and nine teams participated. RPL got a very good start with three government organizations (Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, SEWA Smile Team, and SEWA B Team), and six big corporations (Oracle, Developer Buildings, White Stallion Properties, Dubai Knights, Sharjah Cooperative Society, and Najmat Al Arab Tourism Sultan CC).
The first match was held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in UAE, which was built in the early 1980s and very quickly became a regular host to tournaments as the popularity of one-day cricket matches rose. The date October 18, 2011, was a glorious day as the Sharjah Cricket Stadium entered the Guinness Book of World Records, for hosting the most one-day international matches in the world. His Excellency Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, a cricket enthusiast who brought international cricket to the desert by building the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, said, “It truly is a great honor to be a part of the Guinness World Record files. It means a lot to us, and we will keep doing our best to continue to add to that number over time. The Guinness award is a recognition for all who immensely contributed to the successful staging of the matches. It is an honor for the UAE, especially for the fans, who are our biggest supporters. We look forward to their enthusiastic response.”
It was indeed a privilege and a golden opportunity for me and my Alleem R&D Team to start with such a huge platform.
RPL returns with passion and enthusiasm to spread awareness of good health and well-being. The second edition of RPL was held on March 3–17, 2017, at the Sharjah International Stadium with 16 teams competing. I see very good progress in RPL as it draws a huge crowd, and I expect it to become one of the most remarkable sporting events in the UAE in the future. This time around, we had many partners supporting the event. For example, Delhi Nihari was our meal partner that served food to our players every day, and there was always an audience present during the matches. Red Bull served refreshing drinks to the audience present on the final match. Also, Caprice Watches and Huawei, one of the most recognized companies in China, presented gifts to lucky winners from the spectators. The RPL has received such a good response from corporate organizations that soft drink brand Sprite has also expressed the interest to take part in future tournaments and support this initiative.
While addressing the crowd on the first day of the second edition, I noticed that, aside from high-ranking officers in the corporations, some of the players were from the labor sector, who probably never thought of playing in the international stadium, and I saw the happiness in their eyes. At that moment, I felt that I was doing something good that could bring people together and make them feel content.
Receiving a lot of positive feedback for RPL has really been overwhelming, and I feel that people are getting more involved in the games, becoming more conscious about their health, and more sociable. At this point, I must say that sport makes you fit and demands effort from you. And this is our ultimate goal.
The UAE has always been running a lot of programs to promote the health and education of its citizens. In December 2013, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, launched the largest-ever national brainstorming session through Twitter, calling on all UAE citizens and expatriates to participate in the session and give their best ideas and suggestions to develop the health and education sectors. Sheikh Mohammed said, “Should the UAE provide the healthcare and educational services today the way it did 10 years ago . . . we would go back by 10 years. So, new ideas must be generated.”
As part of the national brainstorming, the Ministries of Health and Education entered a ministerial retreat for two days, where they discussed the development of both sectors. The first day of discussion focused on education, while the second focused on health.
The suggestions and ideas were taken by a team of specialists, who focused on the following five broad categories for health on the second day of the retreat:
Pink Caravan is an initiative that aims to raise awareness of breast cancer. This initiative was launched under the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of the ruler of Sharjah, founder and royal patron of the Friends of Cancer Patients Society (FoCP), international ambassador of the World Cancer Declaration for the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), and international ambassador for childhood cancer for UICC. The following are the objectives, mission, and vision of the initiative:
To become a vehicle for change by engaging breast cancer–related NGOs to come together and unify efforts to support patients in the United Arab Emirates and offer breast cancer early detection screening.
The Sharjah International Award for Refugee Advocacy and Support was launched on January 1, 2017, with the aim of recognizing and paying tribute to those who have made distinguished humanitari an efforts in support of refugees and displaced families in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The award will be presented every year to a personality or entity during a special ceremony to be held in Sharjah, where they will receive a cash prize of $100,000, along with a trophy and a certificate of appreciation.
The award was announced by Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, who said, “The launch of the Sharjah International Award for Refugee Advocacy and Support is in line with our enduring commitment to ending the suffering of refugees and also to inspire individuals and organizations to contribute to improving the lives of those who have been displaced by wars and armed conflict.” She further said that the program was set up as a continuation of the efforts to promote goodness and philanthropy as established by the UAE’s munificent leaders and in appreciation of the role played by the emirate of Sharjah to support humanitarian initiatives at both the regional and the international level.
Fitbit is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company is known for its products that measure personal metrics in fitness, such as number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and so on. It has won numerous awards, including a runner-up finish at TechCrunch50 in 2008, CES 2009 Innovation honors, and best in the health and wellness category award. Most recently, Fitbit ranked 37th out of 50 most innovative companies in 2016.
I frequently visit Singapore, and I am so glad to see that companies there are increasingly turning to fitness trackers in an effort to keep their staff healthy, reduce absences owing to sickness, and even boost productivity. Fitbit started pilot studies for its corporate program in Singapore two years ago and has since signed up four major corporations and 16 small and medium-sized enterprises with a total of 2,400 employees.
Camera maker Leica spent approximately $4,000 on Fitbit products for its 27 employees in Singapore. Managing director Sunil Kaul, 46, said, “I need minimum absentee rates. I have some older, experienced technical repairmen, and if one is sick, I can’t have a fresh person come in to do their work.” At the end of 2015, computer giant IBM distributed wearable trackers—including Fitbit devices—to more than 500 staff members in Singapore.
Amy McDonough, Fitbit Wellness vice president, said, such programs could help companies save on future medical costs, making employees more productive in the workplace.
This is what makes me say that technology is a boon. These kinds of technologies make our life easier and simpler.
A 91-year-old called Morrie, knits for the homeless. He has also been featured on CNN for his knitting efforts. In a hospice bed in Grandville, Morrie Boogart has knitted 8,000 hats so far, which he donates to the homeless. He has been doing it for 15 years, and even at his advanced age, he still manages to finish a hat every two days.
“Why do I do it? It just makes me feel good,” he told CNN. A nonagenarian on bed rest, he refuses to waste his time. Instead, in his golden years, he thinks of others. “This has been the best thing that’s happened to me because I just stay in my room,” he says.
Boogart’s assisted living home, Cambridge Manors in Grandville, Michigan, is accepting yarn and handmade hat donations so Boogart can continue his good work. “I do it awfully slow,” he said. Novice knitters could only dream of that kind of productivity.
Sudhir Choudhrie is a good friend of mine who has built an international business empire that stretches across the globe, but he says that his greatest achievement is simply being alive. In January 1999,