WHO awards Egypt's Ghada Wali Public Health Champion

CAIRO - 29 September 2018: Egypt's Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali received on Friday the World Health Organization (WHO) award for the most influential ministers in the health sector, the Public Health Champion Award. Wali won this award in recognition for her efforts in the fight against addiction.

Assigned to the position in 2014, Wali adopted different initiatives that addressed the needs of marginalized groups nationwide such as “Takaful w Karama”. She also worked to reduce levels of unemployment and poverty with similar projects.

Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Fund for Drug Control and Treatment of Addiction (FDCTA) adopted "Say No to Drugs" campaign to encourage Egyptian youth to stay away from all kinds of drugs. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool star, participated in the "Say No to Drugs" campaign.

Wali revealed that the 16023 hotline number for addiction cure was very active across the past three days since Egyptian star Mohamed Salah participated in the "Say No to Drugs" campaign. The number of calls rose by 400 percent, compared to the number of calls in March.

Wali is also the chairman of the Board of Directors of the FDCTA. The advertisement is part of a major campaign led by the ministry to implement a national plan to combat drug abuse.

Wali stated that the campaign's Facebook video exceeded 5 million views in just 72 hours.

“Some 88 percent of viewers were between 18-35 years old. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube videos’ have been watched 8.4 million times, shared for 23,000 times and liked by 359,000 users,” Wali added.