Over 300 people receive free medical screening, treatment on AU Day
More than 300 people from all walks of life took advantage of a medical outreach organised on AU Day, Friday, May 25, 2012, to receive free screening, diagnoses, counselling and treatment for various ailments and medical conditions.
The seven-hour medical outreach, which was organised by the Christ Chapel branch of the Full Gospel Church International (FGCI) at Race Course near Taborah in Accra, with support from pharmaceutical companies, Kinapharma, Aryton Drugs and other health establishments, began at 7:30am and ended at 2:30pm.
According to pastor of the church, Dr. Frederick Arhin, also a specialist dental surgeon at the Korle-Bu Hospital, Christ Chapel decided to take advantage of AU Day, a day when all Africans were talking about peace on the African continent, as part of the church’s corporate responsibility to society.
“This forms part of the responsibility of the church in giving back to the community. It was an opportunity to use our professions as medics to win the lost for Christ,” he said.
Explaining the rationale behind the exercise, Dr. Fred Arhin said “The ministry of Jesus Christ was characterised by meeting both the spiritual needs as well as the physical needs of those he ministered to. As a church and in following the example of Christ we organised a free medical outreach, screening and free treatment on May 25, 2012, a day when all Africans were talking about peace on our noble continent.”
For his part, Associate Pastor of Christ Chapel, Ps. James Debrah, who was coordinator for the exercise, quoted Luke 4:18-19, adducing that Jesus Christ was not only sent to preach the gospel to the poor, but was sent to heal the broken hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind and set at liberty those who are oppressed, which means “that Jesus Christ came to meet both spiritual and physical needs of mankind.”
“And this is what urged us on to embark on this medical outreach. We did not only administer drugs for their bodily needs but also tried to introduce Christ to them, so that Jesus will take a centre stage of their souls, since the drugs or the medicine we administer to them has nothing to do with their soul,” he added.
“So you see, as a church we also administer both spiritual and physical needs of the people. In a whole I will sum up the medical outreach in one word – that it was a success. Attending to almost 300 people was a great achievement. The staff did very well. Above all the Spirit of God was greatly present. I want to thank Ps. Fred Arhin for his vision and for pioneering this mission,” he stated further.
For the period of the exercise, the premises of the church at Race Course was turned into a mini hospital, with the various rooms used for eye screening, dental extractions, body mass index (BMI) which involved the checking of weight and height to determine if one was obese, under-weight or healthy and for screening for haemoglobin level and random blood sugar, whereas serious conditions were referred to the Korle-Bu teaching hospital.
Other services provided were blood pressure and temperature, VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Testing) for HIV, free consultation by doctors on hand, supply of drugs free of charge and medical as well as Christian counselling.
In all, over 300 people were screened and treated of various conditions including musculoskeletal pains, waist and back pains, malaria and hypertension.
Full Gospel Church International was the organiser and the main sponsor of the programme, while the laboratory service and reagents were sponsored by Lynch Medical Services, Accra. Kinapharma and Aryton Drugs, also in Accra, were helpful in providing the drugs, Aroma Dental Clinic, Dansoman, Accra, provided the dental treatment, whilst eye screening was conducted by staff from Ridge Hospital, Accra.
By Edmund Smith-Asante