Honourable Ministers, Organisers and Participants:
After visiting the School Health Jamboree held in this beautiful tiny island of Feydhoofinolhu, and after having listened to the pledge that you have just taken and after observing some of the activities of the Jamboree, I couldn’t just leave without saying a few words of greetings.
First of all, let me thank the Minister of Health Mr. Ahmed Abdullah and the Minister of Education Dr. Mohamed Latheef and the WHO Representative Dr. Ei Kubota, for inviting me to visit your jamboree.
I think this is a very important meeting. It has been a very rewarding and exhilarating experience for me, to have come here and observed even for a short period of time, your activities. I think we have to thank our Minister of Health Mr. Ahmed Abdullah for coming up with this very novel and exciting idea. It was he who had proposed to the Health Ministers Meeting of the WHO South East Asia Region, that the region hold a school health jamboree. His question was, that he asked himself and he asked us. Students meet for many activities. They hold camps for sports activities, camps for cadet training, for scout training, so why not for health promotion? I think that was a brilliant idea. Anyway, the health ministers of the region welcomed the idea and the result is, this very first school health jamboree that is being held in the entire world, and we are happy that it is taking place in our own country, the Maldives.
I would also like to say a word of welcome to all of you who have come from the different countries of the WHO South East Asia Region. You are most welcome here and I hope you carry back with you fond memories of this country and its people and your friends, the students of the Maldives, and also of the experience that you have gained in this important jamboree. I would also like to greet our own students, the Maldivians, who have come from different atolls and from different islands, and from Male’ to take part in this very exciting event.
It has been a delight to listen to and observe the important pledge that so many young people have taken. I think it is a very important pledge. Health is the most important asset that we have. Good health is not something that is given to you. It is something that you achieve for yourself and you maintain for yourself. First of all we have to know what good health means, and how to acquire good health, and how to maintain good health. And we also need the means to do so, which in turn means that we must have social and economic advancement, development. Without means you can’t achieve the objectives. I know that the resource persons have briefed you on many aspects of good health. How to attain good health. How to keep good health. How good health can help you to fulfil your objectives in life, your aspiration and those of your nation’s. And I know that the experiences that you have shared with each other will last forever, will help you to achieve your goals in life, and to lead in a fulfilling and happy and prosperous life.
I think to achieve good health you have to have good healthy habits. You have to know what these good healthy habits are and you have to avoid bad healthy habits. Bad health habits, you have to avoid them. You have to identify those things. You have to lead a tobacco-free life, a drug-free life. You have to lead a good, healthy and happy life, in order to achieve your personal objectives in life, and in order that you are able to achieve something for your country.
No doubt, healthy and educated people are the most important asset of any country. As you have said in your pledge, you will be the future leaders of your countries. So you have to prepare yourself for that important task right now. You have to learn good habits. You have to learn how to lead a healthy life and to be a role model for other people like you.
Well, I am very happy to have been given this opportunity to visit your camp, your jamboree, and meet with you. And I wish you all success in your present and future life. I wish you a very productive and healthy life for you, yourselves, for your families and your friends. And I am sure that having spent three happy days here, you must have forged friendships with other students of your age. That is a very important thing. After all, international peace and understanding depend on the friendships that we develop here amongst young people.
I wish you a very pleasant and very successful jamboree. And I wish you to carry back with you home, wherever you have come from, happy memories of this jamboree. And I would request all our participants from the other countries of the South East Asia Region to come back and visit us again with your families and friends.
Thank you very much.