Join us in celebrating Wellness Week!

Mirta Roses Periago is the Regional Director, The Americas, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and a member of the Global Agenda Council on Chronic Diseases and Well-being.

UN Non-Communicable Diseases Summit is a crucial turning point in the world’s awareness and commitment to confronting this epidemic and for achieving health for all. Today I am proud to launch Wellness Week.

Beginning on September 19th, the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) will first and foremost provide an opportunity for society to gain awareness of the importance of the NCDs and to mobilize and take action to effectively address this important health issue.

In this context today we are launching Wellness Week.  The idea of a Wellness Week, inspired by the Caribbean Wellness Day, grew out of efforts to mobilize health and well-being in New York City during the UN High Level Meeting.

From the Caribbean Wellness Day idea the concept of Wellness Week was further incubated in Dubai last November, in the context of one of the World Economic Forum’s think tanks, called the “Global Agenda Councils” – this one under my leadership and focusing on “Chronic Diseases and Well-being”.  This Council is composed by a group of sixteen distinguished global thought leaders, from academia, private sector and NGOs, that, throughout the year work together to come up with breakthrough ideas which the World Economic Forum supports to be set into action.

When then I introduced the idea of Wellness Week at the 2011 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, there was tremendous interest from the business community, government officials and colleagues from nongovernmental organizations, who committed their support.

Today I am proud to say that in just 10 months since the idea emerged, Wellness Week has some 13 organizations leading activities across New York City, and 12 countries throughout the Americas are sponsoring Wellness Week events similar to the one we are celebrating today.The Wellness Week initiative will be hosted at the time of the UN High Level Meeting in New York City and other cities, to call attention to health and wellbeing and to celebrate, on an annual basis, NCD prevention and control.

• Wellness Week seeks to develop a social movement on healthy settings for healthy living and increase awareness among individuals, policy makers, communities and employers.
• The objective of Wellness Week is to emphasize the importance of the built and natural environment and socioeconomic conditions in modifying the risk factors for non-communicable diseases and in promoting prevention.

In the days leading up to, and following the UN High Level Meeting, it will be important for all of us to catalyze the momentum across all sectors. I hope all of you members of the health community and all social sectors and partners can take part in making the UN High Level Meeting on NCD a crucial turning point in the world’s awareness and commitment to confronting this epidemic and for achieving health for all.