King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness Fitness rewarded

(Royal Hashemite Court, Media & Communication Directorate - Amman) Winners of the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness were honoured on Tuesday at a ceremony held at Al Hussein Sports City.

The event, held under the patronage of Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania, honoured students who participated in the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness Programme and achieved high marks during the evaluation stages.

The programme also honoured schools that won first place and members of the Award Central Committee.

Some 153,000 students from 711 schools took part in this Royal initiative, which seeks to encourage youth to become more physically active and lead healthier lifestyles.

The students, aged between 9-16, participated in several programmes and fitness activities, including curl-ups, shuttle run, push-ups, sit and reach, and endurance run/walks.

Manager of the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness Programme Samer Al Kasih said, “We credit Your Majesty for taking care of our health to build a stronger and healthier society.”

Early this year, 10 young Jordanian winners of the 2006-2007 King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness visited the United States as part of the first youth exchange programme.

Minister of Education Tayseer Nueimi said the award would be implemented on a larger scale next year.

“Next year, it is expected around half-a-million students to be part of the award and one million in 2010,” he said.

The award aims to reach all schools across the country by 2009.

The award was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and under the supervision of the Royal Health Awareness Society, a nonprofit organisation established under the direction of Queen Rania.

Launched in September 2005, the society seeks to promote health awareness among a wider public, focusing on comprehensive access to information, and helps raise healthy and socially responsible citizens.

The King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness was established in 2005. The award is a school-based national initiative that targets youth who make up one-third of the Jordanian population.

The programme promotes physical fitness and healthy lifestyle choices among young Jordanians in order to combat the rising incidence of lifestyle-related disease, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as obesity in youth.

The programme is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and is inspired from The President's Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Programme in the US targeting youth, fostering behavioural change and encouraging them to become more physically active and accordingly lead healthier lifestyles.