Church gives back to Manchester community through health, wellness initiative

The Blue Mountain Seventh-day Baptist Church in rural Manchester is being lauded as a good Samaritan after hosting a health and wellness fair for members of the community where it is located and surrounding areas in August.

The church’s evangelistic arm organised the event during a week-long outreach activity, dubbed ‘Community Week’, which was aimed at holistically enriching the community.

Persons attending the fair, which was hosted at the community centre, received free health tests and nutrition counselling courtesy of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, as well as health-related information and tips and dental screenings, which were provided by other public and private organisations.

The event was staged several months after the Health Ministry’s ‘Know Your Numbers’ islandwide tour stop in Manchester, where Portfolio Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, underscored the initiative’s role in helping to identify cases of life-threatening diseases or persons at-risk by, “making it easier and more attractive to people to simply walk off the street [and] to come and get checked instead of going to a health centre”.

Chair of the health fair’s Committee, Cassandra Bell-Dawkins, said the team shared sentiments similar to Tufton’s in terms of making the services provided, easily accessible to the public.

“This event was mainly to serve the community in a tangible way, to ensure that they [had] enough information and access to medical services that are usually outside of their reach,” she disclosed.

Bell-Dawkins explained the reason the fair was strategically placed on the Church’s calendar for August.

“This time of the year was chosen because it was close to the back-to-school period, [also] persons are just coming out of [the] Hurricane Beryl [experience]. So it became necessary for us to allow them to have access to free medical checks,” she shares.

NOTABLE TURNOUT

Aisha Simpson, youth coordinator on the committee, said there was a notable turnout of youth at the fair, while underscoring the importance of events like this for young people.

“As youth, because we think that we are young, we think that sickness can’t come so suddenly… but anything can happen at any point. So it is important that we know what is happening in our bodies and how we can correct it from now, while we are young,” she said.

Simpson, who is a teacher, underscores the need for “students to do their medicals”, pointing out that events, like the health fair, are “really beneficial, because they don’t have to pay the money to do so”.

Meanwhile, the Church’s leader, Dr Rose-Marie Wilson, said they believe in “taking care of the entire person”.

“It is not just about spiritual wellbeing for us, as a Church. We believe that physical wellbeing [and] mental wellbeing are absolutely critical,” she pointed out.

Additionally, Wilson said, “providing information about the [government health] services that are available to persons in a community setting, because not everybody is able to go out into the town … bringing it closer [to] home, is a part of the missional agenda of our church”.

Resident of Blue Mountain, Clavia Williams, said the health fair was well-supported, pointing out that this and other similar activities are extremely important for community development.

She maintained that persons who may be apprehensive to go elsewhere to do the necessary check-ups, may feel more comfortable when the services are being offered in their community.

“[Events] like these are very important for community development because you have a wide range of people living in a community. We are so happy that the Blue Mountain Seventh Day Baptist Church [saw] it fit to put on this event. We always have netball competitions, football [and other] competitions within the community. But something health-related like this is very welcome in the community… for persons to gather information about their health and nutrition as well as general knowledge,” Williams said.

The health fair was supported by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Jamaica Fire Brigade, Jamaica Information Service, Pioneer Chocolate Company, Baking Enterprise Limited, Abby’s Frosty Creations and Jamaica Standards Products Company.