“Building bridges instead of widening the gap” is the title the Foundation for Health Promotion of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) chose for the scientific symposium it held in Stuttgart on 4-5 December 2019 to celebrate its first 10 years in existence.
The work of the Foundation is centred around the Ottawa Charter (1986), the cornerstone of health promotion. Read with eyes of today, the forward-thinking nature of this evergreen document is astonishing.
Francesco Zambon, Coordinator of the WHO Regions for Health Network, who attended the event and gave a presentation on the evolution of Ottawa Charter to date, said: “I was really impressed by the examples of best practice carried out by the Foundation in Baden-Württemberg”. He added that “in promoting evidence-based projects and initiatives in the fields of health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitation, the Foundation not only aims at preserving the health of the population, but also devotes special attention to the more vulnerable groups, such as children, adolescents, the elderly and migrants”. This is fully in line with the motto of the United Nations 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development ‘to leave no one behind’.
Manfred Lucha, Minister of Social Affairs and Integration of Baden-Württemberg and President of the Foundation, highlighted the importance of listening to citizens’ concerns and of always bearing in mind that, ultimately, the best resources for making any initiative a success are the citizens. “A healthy life opens new horizons and makes it easier for citizens to integrate fully into society”, he said.
One of the initiatives of the Foundation is to organize bike tours for migrants and refugees. This has the twofold aim of fostering physical activity in this vulnerable group and of informing the participants – in their own languages – about the German health system. “This makes them feel less isolated and increases social cohesion”, the Minister said.
The symposium also touched upon issues, such as the opportunities provided by digitalized health promotion and the use of indicators to monitor and assess health-promotion interventions.
More than 150 public health professionals took part in the event, illustrating that interest in the Ottawa Charter – generated more than 30 years ago – remains unaltered and is a continuous source of inspiration for new generations in the field of public health.