STUDY THE ROLE OF MASS SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN A HEALTHY EGYPTIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

A healthy society is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of highest attainable standard of health in one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, political belief, economic or social condition‖ Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), 1946. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has provided a definition of development as "development of the people for the people by the people" (UNDP, 1993). Egypt has been long considered as one of the most attractive countries to visit because of its historical treasures. Egypt instituted several sport-for-all initiatives in its post-colonial modernization. These included a government sports council in the 1960s and the establishment of a Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) in 1999. The MYS oversees national parks and seaside areas as well as a large-scale fitness mobilization walk/jog events. A major goal of MYS was to develop and maintain youth centers in all of Egypt's metropolitan areas that would service young people's needs in mass sport and physical activities(e.g., basketball, soccer, volleyball).With Egyptian population up to 80 million there are projects related to sport- for- all, events, and or organized programs (cooperative or competitive ) for large groups , including the general population participating in clubs, on playing fields, in gymnasiums , community centers and community recreation programs around Egypt. These were enough for the future of mass sport participation in a great nation with a great history in sport. The International Sport Management Questionnaire (ISMQ), created by Waters (1996), in order to determine the status of sport development in Egypt it was necessary that the ISMQ be translated in to Arabic. This would ensure that Egyptian‘s mass sport and activities leaders- all of whom speak Arabic as their ―mother tongue‖- would have every opportunity to completely understand each of the 51 question as posed specifically for mass sport and activities (and its development) and answer with accuracy, confidence, and reliability. The translation of the ISMQ was carried out by Aly& Elmahdy who are associated with this present study, then distributed to 66 Egyptian mass sport and activities leaders at different youth centers, clubs, recreation departments, in 24 out of 26 cities in Egypt. Raters were asked to provide answers to closed- and open – ended questions (n=51) on the ISMQ, which ultimately resulted in scoring. (Maximum=33 points) of eight factor components: objectives, legislation, organization, implementation, physical resources, human resources, research and evaluation, and contribution to healthy nation building. Analysis of data was through descriptive statistics (frequency distribution using a histogram graph that shows the frequency distribution of variable to evaluate the mass sport and physical activities distribution). The results showed that Egyptians practice recreation, mass sports and physical activities as a tool to promote health and prevent disease. Running, soccer, and team sports are mostly practiced in the southern part of Egypt while in the north west of the country people mostly practice aquatic sports such as beach volleyball, swimming, surfing, speed boating , fishing ,rowing, scuba diving, sailing, etc. Because of population increases over the last decade facilities like parks, schools, clubs, beaches, water facilities, and youth centers are insufficient to meet the needs of the population. In addition, poor access to private clubs doesn‘t help Egypt‘s middle class to participate in mass sports programs and activities as long as those clubs have annual membership fees. Most of the facilities for mass sport and physical activities are located in the suburban areas cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, and Ismailia. Further south there are fewer mass sport programs and physical activities and opportunities for the Egyptian population.