A total of 1500 residents of Moree, a coastal community in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamamkese of the Central region, at the weekend benefitted from free health screening organised by Fiona Care Foundation (FCF), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
The beneficiaries, including women, children and the elderly, were screened for malaria, diabetes, blood pressure, tuberculosis, body mass index and hypertension.
Those with mild conditions were given medication, while others diagnosed with serious conditions were referred to the hospital.
Additionally, babies were weighed and those, including other children, without National Health Insurance Cards, were enrolled onto the scheme.
The NGO also presented food items, second-hand clothing and stationery for the children.
A counselling session was also organised for the aged while the youth was also counselled on sexual reproductive health.
The founder of FCF, Fiona Brown, told the Ghanaian Times that such outreach exercises were targeted at less endowed communities where lots of the people, especially children, were disadvantaged.
She said her organisation’s core social mandate was to restore hope to deprived and marginalised children, orphans and children living with HIV/ AIDS.
A Physician Assistant at the Moree Health Centre, Lavish Aformaley, who led the medical team, said non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, were identified as rife among the residents apart from malaria.
He admonished them not to indulge in self-medication as that might result in dangerous health complications.
Mr Aformaley expressed the hope that the gesture would put good health seeking behaviour into the residents as majority of them were oblivious of their health problems.
FROM KEN AFEDZI, MOREE
