Kuwait City, KUWAIT – RunQ8 the 10km race organized by Agility and Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute (FSRI) under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior, will be held on January 21, 2012 at 8 am. At a press conference held today, the race organizers introduced the platinum sponsors Behbehani Motors Company, Porsche Centre Kuwait and Zain.

RunQ8 2012 promotes road traffic safety in line with the UN Decade of Road and Traffic Safety, 2011-2021 that was launched with an aim to stabilize and reduce global road traffic fatalities by 2021.

The race will benefit two initiatives; one is the Porsche Early Childhood Traffic Safety Education Project, which will teach local school children about being safe passengers and understanding road and traffic safety rules. The second is the Post-Crash Rehabilitation Training Center that helps those affected by traffic accidents to include drivers, passengers and family members that lose a loved one in an accident.

Samer Jarjouhi, Corporate Social Responsibility Associate from Agility said, “At Agility we lay a strong emphasis on road safety. We do our best to ensure that our drivers are trained and responsible. It’s a well known fact that traffic accidents are a leading cause of mortality in Kuwait and affect a large population of the local community. This includes victims of car accidents, or their families. RunQ8 aims to raise awareness about road and traffic safety and ensure that our future generations grow up to be safer and more responsible drivers.”

It has been proven that children begin to shape their future driving behavior between the ages of 3 - 7 years old. The Porsche Early Childhood Traffic Safety Education Project aims to reach out to 7000 school children from that age group in Kuwait. These children will be introduced to traffic safety training in these formative years to encourage them to be safer drivers once they are old enough to get behind the wheel.

Graeme Hunter, General Manager of Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company added, “Porsche is pleased to have the opportunity to support road and traffic safety in Kuwait. Kuwait is one of the largest and most important markets for Porsche Middle East & Africa and we have a strong sense of responsibility towards the local community. By being the official sponsors of the Porsche Early Childhood Traffic Safety Education Project, we are trying our best to ensure that we have safe drivers for our sports cars in the country.”

The Post-Crash Rehabilitation Training Center is an FSRI initiative supported by Zain that will offer free training to local physiotherapists in post-crash rehabilitation assessment, case management and hands-on clinical skills. In addition, clinical psychological services will be available at the Center, as part of the routine assessment of each patient. Follow-up counseling services will also be provided to accident victims participating in the physiotherapy training and their families if needed.

Eleanor Burton Al Issa, Director – Corporate Social Responsibility & Communications for FSRI explained, “Road accidents in Kuwait claim lives and leave people injured and devastated. They also affect the families of the victims. With the Post-Crash Rehabilitation Training Center we will be assisting patients to return to work, school and their daily routines.  The goal is to establish a program that can be used by any physiotherapist to bring their applied skills up to international standards, and to offer clinical psychological support and training to improve post-crash rehabilitative care throughout the healthcare system in Kuwait.” 

RunQ8 will start at the Marina Crescent on Gulf Road and will be a fun day for the entire family with a race village and other activities for kids. People are also encouraged to form groups and participate together in supporting this cause.

Lana Ali, Operations Manager for FSRI highlighted, “Last year, with the support of the local community in Kuwait, RunQ8 raised over KWD 50,000 for Kuwait University’s Community Eye Health Care Initiative that supported Vision 2020, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). With RunQ8 2012 we are working to ensure safer roads for everyone in Kuwait. We are hopeful that the local community will come together again and support this important initiative.”

To participate in RunQ8 visit: www.runq8.org     

About FSRI

The Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute is a non-profit rehabilitation institute established on the pillars of service through clinical care, education, training and research. FSRI is committed to offering the finest-quality orthopedic, cardio-pulmonary, neurological and pediatric rehabilitative care in the Gulf. However, our greatest commitment is to improving the standard of health care in Kuwait and working on preventative health initiatives targeting the local population.

FSRI works towards: initiating research to gather data on Kuwaiti health to support our evidence-based practice; supporting and offering free or low-cost international-standard training to local healthcare professionals; supporting local researchers and clinicians in their professional development; supporting the efforts of local civil society working in the areas of improving rehabilitation and health, providing consistently high quality physical rehabilitation services with clinicians trained in the North American model; implementing programs to allow equal access to quality rehabilitative care to vulnerable patients who would otherwise be unable to receive adequate treatment; and educating the public on health and rehabilitation issues through articles in local newspapers, lecture series, and outreach programs.

For more information on FSRI, please visit www.rehabinstitutekuwait.com