The Rotary Family Health Days initiative which has been created to support communities in the health care services has been rolled out on Thursday in Lilongwe.
The initiative is being supported by the Rotarian Club to the tune of K78 million and all Rotary Clubs have received equal amount of K7.5 million to facilitate on two centres each.
The Immediate Past President for the Rotary Club of Lilongwe Vincent Sikelo who has been chosen as the country Coordinator for the program said the initiative will be vital for the prevention of diseases among the communities.
Sikelo said this during the Rotary Family Health Days launching activities at Area 18 Health Centre which is among designated camps to host to activities.
“This particular program is inviting everyone whether you’re sick or not to go to the medical camps and get tested on any disease so that’s the uniqueness of this initiative, the whole reason why we have done this is that people are keeping diseases in their homes which are spreading without knowledge of the hospital by the time we realize that this is a problem the disease has already spread far so this program is aimed at preventing disease before we fell sick” said Sikelo
According to Sikelo the program which started at Mitundu Community Hospital where it was launched two weeks ago is expected to extend to all regions across the country.
“We started at the launch site in Mitundu then Bwaila Rotary Club then this week we are in five sites namely, Area 18, Biwi, Kawale, Area 25 and tomorrow we will be at Kabudula Community Hospital. In two weeks time we we’ll have the additional sites in Mbabzi and Ngwenya, Area 24 here in Lilongwe, and in Blantyre we will be at Zingwangwa, Chilobwe and Chilomoni, don’t forgetting Zolozolo and Chibavi in Mzuzu as well as Grace Centre in Dowa”
On his part, Chief Clinical Officer for Area 18 Health Centre Kedson Masiyano commended the initiative saying it will help to soften their duties as most disease will be detected at treated before it gets worse.
“It’s a very important project to people around this facility because to know the statuses of their body to some disease that remain silent in their bodies for a long time before showing its symptoms like HIV, Cancer, diabetes”
“I expect a lot of people to get tested for the next three days as this hospital covers a big catchment area which has a population of over 280,000 people”
One of the chiefs around Area 18 Health Centre, Group Village Headman Sandram Banda said he will makesure the message about the initiative reaches everyone in his area and has urged people to utilize an opportunity to get tested and know their body statuses.
The initiative targets testing of Blood Sugar, Malaria, Hepatitis, BP checking as well as screening and treatment for STI’s and cervical cancer.
