Enough! No More Smoking

MAKKAH: More than 500 pilgrims quit smoking during the current Haj season thanks to the efforts of a voluntary anti-smoking society called, Kafa (Enough).

Hundreds of pilgrims of various nationalities visited Kafa’s mobile clinic, the largest of its kind, stationed closed to the Grand Mosque, said Ibrahim Al-Hamda, the society’s director.

“The clinic cost an estimated SR1 million. It is located in a large bus, equipped with all the required medical instruments and facilities needed for smokers to quit. There are two sections in the clinic. The first is for receiving pilgrims who want treatment to quit,” he said.

He added that the clinic can provide treatment to four people at a time while another four people wait in the waiting area.

“The clinic has been implementing a special program for Haj targeting pilgrims who smoke. We started implementing the program in two phases from the beginning of Dul Hijjah. The first phase is focused on implementing field awareness programs around the courtyards of the Grand Mosque,” he said.

“As part of this, more than 25 members of the society have been tasked with carrying out awareness among pilgrims about the harms of smoking, and guiding those who want to quit smoking to the mobile clinic,” he added.

The second phase of the program is aimed at pilgrims inside their tents in Arafat and Mina. The awareness campaign was carried out in coordination with tawafa organizations and Haj service providers. The society prepared and distributed 250,000 brochures and CDs in both Arabic and English among Haj pilgrims.

Al-Hamdan said that the bus was fitted with two large screens on the outside. The screens display statistics related to smoking, including real-life stories of smokers and how they gave up.

He added that the clinic focuses on addressing the human intellect by convincing people of the need to quit smoking. Messages conveyed covered the Islamic viewpoint on smoking, the adverse effect of smoking on people’s health, and social and economic lives.

“We also have material on display inside and outside the clinic focusing on the components of tobacco, the percentage of harmful substances that it contains, and the negative impacts and health complications of smoking,” he said, adding that these programs and shows are aired in four languages including Arabic, English and Urdu.

Makkah and Madinah have both been declared no-smoking zones by the Ministry of Health and shops there are prohibited from selling cigarettes.

During the current Haj season, the ministry intensified its campaign on making the holy cities completely tobacco-free.

The ministry has set up six anti-smoking clinics in Makkah as part of the campaign. The clinics are open to male and female smokers and services are offered free of charge.

Sumber: arabnews.com