28 Sep World Heart Day 2012
Network Supports Clubs in Eastern Europe for WHD 2012
The European Healthy Stadia Network has joined forces again with the World Heart Federation for a health promotion campaign in Eastern European Countries in support of this year’s World Heart Day on Saturday 29th September. The campaign has brought together the national governing bodies of football (Football Associations or Federations) with the national heart associations in Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania to develop health promoting actions at clubs and their stadia over the weekend of World Heart Day. The Network’s main role in the campaign has been to help nurture these new partnerships and to develop a specialist toolkit for World Heart Day detailing simple health initiatives concerning physical activity, tobacco control and healthier eating that clubs can implement for World Heart Day and beyond.
UEFA’s Football and Social Responsibility department has supported World Heart Day since 2004, and has been instrumental in garnering the support of national governing bodies of football for this campaign. It is anticipated that long-term partnerships between football and heart associations will be developed in each country, with Healthy Stadia policies and practices becoming embedded within the operations of sports stadia in the coming years.
About World Heart Day 2012
World Heart Day was created by the World Heart Federation in 2000 to inform people around the globe that heart disease and stroke are the world’s leading cause of death, claiming 17.3 million lives each year. On 29 September each year, together with its members, the World Heart Federation aims to drive action to educate people that by controlling risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, at least 80% of premature deaths from heart disease and stroke could be avoided.
World Heart Day unites people from all countries and backgrounds in the fight against the CVD burden, and inspires and drives international action to encourage heart-healthy living across the world. The focus for this year’s World Heart Day is the prevention of CVD among women and children, which is a continuation of the 2011 theme; One World, One Home, One Heart.
The main aim is to educate people that the threat of heart disease can begin even before birth, and that children’s risk increases during childhood with their exposure to risk factors such as unhealthy diet or exposure to tobacco smoke. Unless action is taken to enable heart-healthy activity, the children of today are at increased CVD risk later in life.
More information about World Heart Day is available at www.worldheartday.org; www.facebook.com/worldheartday and #worldheartday
