Along with several NGOs and health service providers, they promoted healthy living and disease prevention and provided comprehensive, free health-care services to people in underprivileged communities.
This was an initiative of Rotarians For Family Health and Aids Prevention (RFHA), Rotary’s mobilising and implementing partner in the area of disease prevention, and offered free healthcare for people at over 143 sites across the country, with NGOs.
Services over the three days included HIV, TB, hypertension, malaria, symptomatic, diabetes and blood pressure screening, polio and measles vaccinations, deworming and the dispensing of Vitamin A.
Benoni’s three Rotary clubs were all involved with this year’s Rotary Family Health Days at three sites.
The Rotary Club of Benoni Aurora manned sites at Norah’s Drop-In Centre in Barcelona and Lindelani informal settlement’s community hall.
And the Rotary Club of Benoni and the Rotary Club of Benoni van Ryn manned a site at the John Wesley Community Centre, in Etwatwa.
It is the vision of RFHA, Rotary leaders and other partners to expand the health event each year, to other African countries.
Norah’s Drop-In Centre had a turnout of 952 people over the three days.
The John Wesley Community Centre site had a turn-out of 204 people, and the Lindelani informal settlement’s community hall welcomed a remarkable 12 000 people.
Area co-coordinator for the Rotary Family Health Days, Heather Smithard, said there had been a tremendous turnout.
“I am very happy with the numbers; it has well improved from last year,” she said.
RFHA has received support from the Department of Health (DoH), the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, SABC and Caxton, to implement the Rotary Family Health Days programme, across the country.
The programme is Rotary-led, with international support from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Agencies of the United States of America Government, who fund the HIV/Aids programme (USAID).
