Two Mamelodi churches partnered with health specialists to host a Health Expo for local people.
The annual Expo was held at the Fire Revival Church in Mamelodi East in partnership with the Tshwane East Seventh-day Adventist Church (TESDA) on 9 November.
Pastor Abel Zuma of the Fire Revival Church said the expo has been running for over five years with the aim of helping the community.
“The idea started five years ago after noticing that a lot of people did not like to go to the clinics for medical check-ups.
“For this year’s annual Health Expo event at our church premises, our target was to reach at least 800 patients and we managed to see almost 600 patients.”
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Zuma said they started at 08:00 hoping to finish at 17:00 but because of the volume of people who came in “we had to close the gates at 12:00 because it was full in the church and even outside and we knocked off at 18:00”.
He added that the need was huge and people were sick out there and they just could not cope with the long queues at the clinic and hospital and they could not afford private doctors.
Private Doctor Solomon Molefe who was organised by the Seventh-day Adventist Church had his hands full with patients and Choose life Church from Moreleta also organised a private doctor.
Zuma further said they were reaching out to everyone, and a total of 100 patients who could not afford private doctors received free spectacles.
A grade 12 learner was given free spectacles just in time to write his final matric examination.
Pink Drive was also part of the Health Expo and provided both education and free mammograms and educated many women about breast cancer.
A total of 96 women went in for breast cancer screening and only three were found with lumps and were referred to the nearest clinics and hospital for further tests.
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Dietitians were also part of the Expo and they encouraged the public to eat healthy food to stay healthy.
Zuma added that the Expo accommodated everyone and they also conducted counselling for HIV/Aids and also had specialists who gave a talk to the youth about drugs and substance abuse.
He said because of the positive response, they were planning to host the expo twice a year to help more people in the community.
Church members also volunteered to help the residents.
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