The National Health Insurance Company – Daman, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, has launched the community-centred Daman Challenge. Focused on encouraging community members to maintain healthy weights through conscious dieting and regular exercise, the month-long challenge demonstrates Daman’s sustained commitment to shaping a healthier community in the UAE, helping members adopt active lifestyle habits.
His Excellency Khaled Bin Shaiban Almehairi, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Company – Daman, commented: “Daman has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to the health and wellbeing of the UAE community. Its vision to ensure a healthy future starts with inspiring and motivating all UAE citizens and residents to live healthy lifestyles, in line with the wider health goals set by the insightful leadership of our nation.”
“Community challenges motivate individuals to get healthy and have proven to be popular. Today’s launch announcement of the Daman Challenge is continuing to deliver initiatives which support and inspire healthy living among all communities in the UAE. We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Abu Dhabi Sports Council for this initiative.”
The Daman challenge is free for all members of the UAE community to enter under two separate categories: weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight. Members who enter can compete to either lose weight over a period of four weeks, or to maintain their current weight, again over a period of four weeks. The challenge is open to all UAE residents aged 16 or over with results announced a month after.
His Excellency Aref Hamad Al Awani, General Secretary of Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said: "We are keen to support all activities that achieve community interaction and enhance communication with sports, and we seek with all authorities and institutions to spread awareness of the importance of sports and make it a way of daily life.”
Al Awani stressed that the sports council will spare no effort in providing all kinds of support for all initiatives and ideas that benefit community members, noting that the "Daman Challenge" will encourage a large segment of society to exercise in order to lose excess weight, which is a major cause of certain chronic diseases.
Al Awani pointed out that it is important to work on spreading sports culture and promoting community sports as tools in an advanced and civilized society.
Awards for the weight loss categories will be given to the best male and female participants, celebrating those who lose over 5% of their weight, around 5% of their weight, and those who lose between 3–5% of their weight. For maintenance of healthy body weight, participants will be awarded for maintaining a Body Mass Index (BMI) within healthy limits. Finally, individuals who actively champion the Daman Challenge over social media via the hashtag, #Daman_Challenge, will be awarded as a ‘Challenge Ambassador’ in a gesture that recognises social platforms’ role in inspiring this challenge. Awards for the challenge include electronics devices, sports gear, accessories and gym memberships.
Those wishing to participate in the Daman Challenge can download the application on their smart device. Users can register and enter their details to start the challenge. At the end of the challenge, participants will be asked to enter their final weight to showcase their personal achievement in participating in the challenge.
Community members can sign up via damanhealth.ae/en/challenge-registration
