Dear students
The theme of World Health Day 2015 is food safety. Food safety means ensuring that food is safe from harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances. Food that has been contaminated with such elements is responsible for more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancer.
The goal of World Health Day 2015 is to raise awareness about food safety. A core element of the campaign will be to provide communities with information about some of the most commonly known hazards related to unsafe food.
Why focus on food safety?
The threat posed by unsafe food is linked to the deaths of an estimated 2 million people annually – including many children.
As our food supply becomes increasingly globalized, the need to strengthen food safety systems in and between all countries is becoming more urgent.
That is why WHO is promoting efforts to improve food safety across the food production cycle, from farm to plate and everywhere in between, on World Health Day, 7 April 2015.
Why it is important to know about that?
New threats to food safety are constantly emerging. The way food is produced, distributed and consumed; changes to the environment; new and emerging pathogens; antimicrobial resistance - all pose challenges to national food safety systems. Increases in travel and trade enhance the likelihood that contamination can spread internationally.
What is the role of each of us?
Food safety is a shared responsibility. It is important to work all along the food production chain – from farmers and manufacturers to vendors and consumers. For example, WHO’s Five keys to safer food offers practical guidance to people who are handling and preparing food:
Key 1: Keep clean
Key 2: Separate raw and cooked food
Key 3: Cook food thoroughly
Key 4: Keep food at safe temperatures
Key 5: Use safe water and raw materials.
Dear students
You can contribute to the efforts to make your food safer and prevent food-borne diseases by participating in World Health Day activities. World Health Day 2015 is an opportunity to alert people working in different government sectors, farmers, manufacturers, retailers, health practitioners – as well as consumers – about the importance of food safety, and the part each can play in ensuring that everyone can feel confident that the food on their plate is safe to eat.
You may also express these concepts through a contest in drawing and in colour.
Contest participation conditions
- Entries must be in the form of a drawing or painting by schoolchildren aged 8–18 years.
- Artwork should be submitted on appropriate drawing paper.
- Entries should be sent to the WHO Representative in your country, or to the Director of the Department of International Relations, Ministry of Health, so that they can be forwarded to the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
- The last date for receiving entries is 15-March 2015.
- Entries will be judged according to the following age groups: 8–9, 10–11, 12–13, 14–15 and 16–18 years.
- Winners will be selected by a panel of judges at the WHO Regional Office in Cairo.
- WHO cannot return any winning or non-winning entries to their owners.
- WHO reserves the right to use the submitted artwork in its information products.
- Every entry must include the form attached to this document, with the following information provided:
The full name of the entrant
Country of residence
Age
Full home address
Name and address of the school (with telephone contact number)
Name of the legal guardian (with telephone contact number)
The above information must be legibly written, and preferably typed.
Drawings submitted without the above information will be disregarded.
10. Winners will receive a prize of US$ 200, US$ 175, US$ 150, US$ 125 or US$ 100, in addition to a certificate of merit. An exhibit will be held for winning entries at the Regional Office premises in Cairo.
Note for schools and art teachers
Schools are kindly requested to be selective in the entries they submit. While all students are strongly encouraged to take part in the competition in order to raise their awareness about the theme of the World Health Day, the panel of judges will consider promising entries only. Children should be assisted in completing the form legibly and in full.
To participate fill out the form and send it to the WHO office in your country.