RIYADH: More than 300 Saudi undergraduates are being trained as health ambassadors and will be fielded in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the forthcoming Haj in order to propagate the Kingdom’s health message among pilgrims.
“These undergraduates from the colleges of medicine and health sciences are currently undergoing a comprehensive training that aims to develop their communication skills so that they can reach out to the pilgrims effectively,” Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani, general supervisor of Health Education Department in the Ministry of Health, told Arab News yesterday.
Al-Qahtani said the undergraduates had opted to work voluntarily. However, he added, negotiations were under way with the concerned authorities to provide them with a temporary allowance during their stay in the holy cities.
He said the pilot project last year proved successful. Consequently, this year the ministry has increased the number to 300 personnel to cover all the Haj camps within the holy cities.
The “health ambassadors”, as they are called, will visit camps of different countries and inform them of the health practices to be followed during the pilgrims’ stay in the holy cities to prevent the spread of infections and maintain a clean environment.
“They will inform the pilgrims about personal hygiene, environmental cleanliness and the types of food they need to consume during the period,” he said.
Besides this project, he said, around two million pamphlets are being prepared for distribution among the pilgrims. These pamphlets are to be printed in seven languages — Arabic, English, French, Malayalam, Urdu, Farsi and Indonesian.
The ministry will distribute the pamphlets both among the pilgrims who come by land through the 10 entry points to the Kingdom and among those who come by sea at the Jeddah port.
On instructions given by the Health Ministry, the Kingdom’s foreign missions issue Haj visas to pilgrims on production of vaccination certificates relevant to their countries. Al-Qahtani said arrangements had been made at all entry points for pilgrims to be vaccinated if they had not done so prior to arrival.
Arrangements are also being made to install eight large TV screens on the right side of the road from the Haj Terminal to Makkah. “The display will carry health messages in animated pictures. Five large billboards carrying similar messages will also be displayed in prominent places within the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. Saudi television will also carry one-minute TV spots on health-related topics,” he said.
