Rotarians promote family health
Rotary clubs are gearing up to promote family health and provide free services to communities.
The Rotary Family Health Days (RFHD), a signature programme of Rotarians for Family Health & Aids Prevention, Incorporated (RFHA), will take place from April 2 to April 4.
The free health services that will be offered from 9am to 4pm include HIV testing and counselling, TB symptomatic screening, polio and measles vaccinations, diabetes and blood pressure screening, provision of Vitamin A tablets and deworming.
The Rotary clubs of Johannesburg East, Boksburg Lake and Edenvale will volunteer at the Wannenburg Clinic in Primrose.
“We will rotate shifts throughout the three days of the clinic. Doctors and nurses will be sent out by the Department of Health. Anyone can attend the clinic. We love the idea of being able to assist a community no matter the need. We are prepared to roll up our sleeves and be part of a way to serve others above ourselves,” said Rotarian Heather Rossouw, from the Rotary Club of Johannesburg East.
She said this programme was the vision of a Rotary District Governor in Uganda, Stephen Mwanje, in 2011.
“He asked Marion Bunch, the chief executive officer of RFHA, to help him obtain partners and resources to help his Rotary clubs implement it.
“The first partner organisation to provide support was The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. In addition, the in-country governments all have to be a part of the partnership. The Centers for Disease Control and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) add significant value because of their non-governmental organisation (NGO) implementing partners in each country who provide services at all the sites,” said Rotarian Heather.
She said the 2011 pilot project was held in Uganda at 120 sites and parts of Kenya at 40 sites.
“Rotarians were stunned when 38 000 people came to the one-day event, and realised they had uncovered a need of the underserved population. In 2012, Nigeria implemented the programme at 77 sites in Lagos and Ogun States. Overall, 160 000 people were served free health care in Uganda, Nigeria and a part of Kenya,” said Rotarian Heather.
The programme was expanded to South Africa last year. The project served a population of 275 089 people in 2013 according to Rotarian Heather.
“This programme was initially developed to address the critically important issue of HIV/Aids in Africa, but the programme always included other health care services such as safe male circumcision, the provision of condoms, malaria screens and the provision of bed nets. The 2013 year was when this programme achieved ‘proof of concept’, particularly by the efficient and effective roll-out of this programme in South Africa. RFHA received an unprecedented commitment from the South African government’s Department of Health which provided the medical and technical services at each site,” said Rotarian Heather.
The project has also received commitment from the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Caxton to support the implementation of RFHDs across the country.
