Fortis Hospital, Anandapur Celebrates World Heart Day 2016

On the occasion of World Heart Day 2016, Fortis, a responsible healthcare provider, along with 24 premier schools across Kolkata, has reached out to the young hearts- Students of Class IV to VII to spearhead the awareness drive - “Touching Young Hearts”.

Touching Young Hearts is a task based program where school children are expected to bring about the desired changes in their own and their elders’ behavior to keep hearts young and healthy.

"The burden of heart disease is increasing leaps and bounds world over and India is no exception. Heart disease, as we know, starts developing from early age due to unhealthy lifestyle. Research has shown that diet, exercise, prevention of active & passive smoking and life-style modification, if started at the young age, can prevent the disease from being life threatening," said Mr. Samir Singh, Zonal Director, Fortis Healthcre Ltd. (East)

"Children must know the consequences of the heart diseases from an early age. They should be conscious about the problems when they grow up so that they can keep a check on their parents too. Rather than targeting adults, creating awareness through kids is a novel idea," said Dr. Tapas Ray Chaudhuri, Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Anandapur .

"Start Young, Stay Young, Live Long without heart disease,” opined Dr. Shuvanan Ray, Director Cardiology , Fortis Hospital, Anandapur.

Dr. K M Mandana, Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Anandapur, said "Today awareness is the buzzword. Hence to create awareness in our young minds, ambassadors about hearts care should start at schools. And this is the only way forward to prevent untimely cardiac deaths."

The Campaign Synopsis:

As a part of the campaign Fortis, Anandapur provided a task based Young Heart Kit to each student of class IV to VIII (Age group- 9 to 13 yrs). The students had to do the following tasks with their parents.

• Do your parents have the right BMI ?- Students had to measure their Dad and Mom’s weight and height and calculate their BMI and know if they are healthy.
• Is Dad & Mom in good shape ? – Students had to measure central obesity of their parents to find out whether they are fit and fine. Fat around the waist increases the risk of obesity related health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
• Find out your Dad & Mom’s young heart quotient? – Sedentary lifestyle is one of the top risk factors of heart disease. A set of 10 questions were provided to the students to find out whether their parents heart is healthy.
• Is your food smart? – Students were given a task to go to the kitchen with their mom’s and find out if she was cooking food with healthy ingredients and low oil.

Students also had to participate in either a Drawing or a Story Telling competition in their schools.

• Theme of the Drawing competition - “Keeping your family’s heart young and healthy”.
• Theme of the Story Telling competition - “How did you influence your elders to change their life-style and the impact it created ”

Top 10 participants from each school based on the drawing and storytelling competition in their schools were invited to attend the Grand Event on World Heart Day on September 29, 2016 at Swabhumi Rangmanch. A musical performance by the SAREGAMA LITTLE CHAMPS Ronita, Aruna and Subhankar along with an Interactive Session on Healthy Heart was presented to the young audience to celebrate World Heart Day 2016.

Among the 7100 students who participated in the Touching Young Hearts campaign 240 best students were felicitated with medals and certificates during the event and the top 10 students among them were given special acknowledgement and recognition by the judges Mr. Biswanath Dasgupta, Chief Editor & Creative Head- The Telegraph In Schools and Mr. Suman Choudhury, Chief Illustrator – Ananda Bazar Patrika.

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