Boost for health awareness in China
Countdown to Beijing 2008: today on the Olympic Games and health education:
This summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing are providing an ideal opportunity to boost health awareness across China, both in cities and in rural areas. The Chinese authorities have come together with international bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), local groups and multinational corporations to launch a range of programmes aimed at improving the well-being of the nation’s 1.3 billion population. The initiatives are using this summer’s Games as a catalyst to capture the public’s imagination.
Anti-smoking efforts gathering pace
One area being targeted is smoking. The world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer, China has over 350 million smokers and nearly one million deaths annually from smoking-related diseases, according to its Ministry of Health. Another 100,000 die from the effects of passive smoking. Under Beijing’s campaign for a smoke-free Games, catering facilities, Olympic venues, city departments, hotels and hospitals have all banned smoking. Several hospitals have launched outpatient services including counselling and medication to help smokers quit.
Using Olympic excitement to highlight key health messages
Dr Hans Troedsson, the WHO China representative, applauded Beijing’s smoke-free regulations, which present “a golden opportunity to expand education around the risks of tobacco”. “Beijing’s leadership on this front will hopefully spark similar regulations in other cities,” he said. The goal for the “3 Fives” campaign is for it to spread to the rest of the country, not just Beijing. “This is another chance to ride the excitement around the Olympics to raise awareness of simple but key health messages,” added Dr Troedsson.
Private sector playing its part
Companies have also taken up the health education baton. In 2006, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson launched a nationwide Olympic-themed campaign with the Red Cross Society of China and over 100 hospitals, encouraging the public to donate stem cells to help leukaemia patients combat the disease. Its Chinese subsidiary, Xian-Janssen, undertook a roadshow called “Health for Winning Olympics” with the Chinese Medical Association to increase health awareness and promote healthier lifestyles. It visited 48 cities in 12 provinces.
Health kits and advice on healthier diets
Beijing’s Municipal Health Bureau has sent out health advice kits to five million households to counter rising mortality rates and illnesses such as coronary heart disease, strokes and diabetes in its “Healthy Olympics, Healthy Beijing” programme. Meanwhile, the WHO has partnered the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), China’s Ministry of Health and Beijing’s Food Safety Administration to launch a “3 Fives” health promotion campaign, initially in Beijing, to highlight the benefits of food safety, healthy diets and physical activity. Characters, storylines make for entertaining Olympic trials
Jordan Hasay, a rising senior at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo, had her bags packed Friday for a trip to the World Junior Championships in Poland. Some 11th-hour rearranging allowed her to stay around and depart Monday.
 Beijing Olympic Games help promote volunteering spirit in China
Countdown to Beijing 2008: today on volunteerism and the Olympic Games
One of the most tangible aspects of the Beijing Olympic Games for visitors and athletes alike will be the contact with the numerous unpaid volunteers. They will be on hand to ensure everything runs smoothly in Beijing and other Olympic venue cities. Hosting the Olympic Games has given the people of China not only a tremendous sense of national pride, but it has also inspired a huge wave of desire to give up time to help others. United Nations Volunteer (UNV) programme Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri states: “The 2008 Olympic Games will showcase the unifying power of sport and highlight the very visible contribution of volunteerism. UNV is also working to further develop volunteerism in China and demonstrate its potential for development in the years ahead. This is inspiration in action.”
Half a million volunteers on duty
In total, half a million volunteers will serve in Beijing and other Olympic venues. Of those, 100,000 will be Olympic volunteers – 70,000 for the Olympic Games in August and 30,000 for September’s Paralympics. They were chosen from more than a million people who applied. Another 400,000 city volunteers took up their posts beginning July at 500 information stands around Beijing, providing information and translation services for visitors. They will continue until the Paralympic Games finish.
“Green Olympics” campaign promoting energy saving and pollution reduction
The UNV programme is supporting some of these information stands by supplying advocacy materials to promote volunteering for the “Green Olympics” – an environmental awareness campaign launched by the UNV in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and several Beijing based associations. It aims to encourage volunteer action to save energy consumption and reduce pollution.
Olympic Volunteers Project continuing until 2010Green Olympics forms part of a three-year, USD 1.4 million Olympic Volunteers Project, undertaken with the China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges and running until June 2010. It is not only promoting volunteerism through the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, but also demonstrates volunteerism as a resource for development. The other main components comprise training 10,000 volunteer leaders and post-Games programmes to contribute to China’s social and economic development through volunteerism. About 6,500 volunteers and volunteer managers have also received special training on elements including HIV and AIDS awareness.
Beijing Games will demonstrate the power of volunteerism“The 2008 Olympic Games offers China and the world an opportunity to take a big step forward in raising global awareness of the power contributed by volunteers, not only to sport, but also to the well-being of whole society worldwide,” said Subinay Nandy, UNDP Country Director in China, at the launch of the project
 Learn more about the Olympic volunteers in Beijing
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Comment by Douglas L. Koopman
