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Youth organisation to stage health fair

Apr 13, 2015, 10:37 AM | Article By: Halimatou Ceesay

Your Change For a Change (YCFaC), a non-profit organisation founded by a group of youth, has announced that its forthcoming health fair, which was supposed to take place on 11 April, has been rescheduled for 18 April 2015 at the Buffer Zone in Tallinding.

This announcement was made to the media on Friday during a press briefing organised by YCFaC at McCaesars Restaurant on Kairaba Avenue.

Taslima Jallow, health officer of YCFaC, said the postponement of “the long-awaited national health fair” is due to the fact that 11 April was Set settal, a national cleansing day.

Mr Jallow said the ‘Mind, Body and Spirit Health Expo’ will be an integrated total health programme in which all dimensions of healthy lifestyles will be presented in a harmonised manner.

“The event will consist of a variety of vendors and exhibitors that will educate people on all aspects of health: wellness, fitness and lifestyle improvements,” he said.

“Topics will include stress and depression management, nutrition, physical education, medical health, health insurance, mental health, traditional medicine, communicable and non-communicable diseases and other health related programs.”

Alieu Saidykhan, secretary of YCFaC, said the expo will be an educational and interactive one-day event for educating the Gambian community on how to take charge of their health, be it by fitness, healthy eating, preventive care, or other lifestyle changes.

He said the goal is to represent the combined efforts of medical science, traditional medicine, government and non-government agencies cooperating in making the World Health Organisation’s goal of ‘Health for All’ a reality in The Gambia.

Mr Saidykhan said there are plans to offer free preventive screenings for blood pressure, hearing testing, cholesterol testing, diabetes screenings, lung capacity screenings, and other health-related issues.