Black Immigrant Daily News

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday announced that the Guyana Government will soon introduce a screening programme within schools that will help in detecting various health issues among students.

This initiative, which will first be piloted at a select institution and then rolled out countrywide, will cater for the screening of students at “critical points during their school year,” the health minister said.

He noted that het programme will look at areas of dental care, eyecare, and hearing as well as a number of “other parameters.”

“We see school health as a very important aspect of delivering healthcare in Guyana,” Dr Anthony expressed, noting that it is an area that has been ignored over the years.

In addition to the screening programme, the Health Minister said the government plans to encourage the formation of health clubs in schools.

“With these health clubs, we’ll be promoting and sort of reinforcing some of the things that they’ve been taught in school pertaining to health so that they can live and embrace a healthy lifestyle.”

According to the Health Minister, one of the goals is to get young people more physically active.

“Young people, in a lot of ways, have been sitting down and playing games, board games and video games and they’re not as active as they ought to be. So, we’re trying to encourage physical activity, football, volleyball, cricket and so forth.”

Another key area, the health minister noted, is nutrition. “We want them to choose the right foods, avoid fatty foods, avoid trans fats, avoid sugar sweetened beverages, avoid salt and so forth. So, in the health clubs, we’ll have programmes that are geared to teach some of these things.”

Dr Anthony made these disclosures at an event to hand over the Ministry of Health various packages of sports and hygiene equipment as part of the “Promoting Safe & Healthy Learning & Living Environments” Project supported by Canada and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Funded by Canada and implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Guyana, the project is already making a difference in the lives of children here. In Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Essequibo), for example, healthcare and community workers have been trained and are delivering Early Childhood Development services.

Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Mark Berman & UNICEF representative Nicolas Pron, spoke about the project’s goal to provide gender responsive programmes for health that caters to both boys and girls, and the benefits for vulnerable children, especially those in the hinterland and host/migrant communities.

It was also explained that the supplies handed over will support the expansion of school health clubs and boost adolescent health services across selected hinterland communities. Nearly 10,000 children will benefit from this aspect of the project. “I want to emphasise that this project is not only gender-responsive but we aim for it to be gender-transformative,” the UNICEF representative said at the event.

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Health Minister Moses Jn Baptiste has expressed concern regarding the high number of COVID-19 cases in Saint Lucia.

He told reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session on Tuesday that between August 12 and October 10, Saint Lucia recorded seventeen COVID-19-related deaths.

“Very clearly COVID-19 continues to be a very serious problem,” the Vieux Fort North MP asserted.

In addition, Jn Baptiste disclosed that medical professionals are reporting the usual increase in respiratory problems, especially around the rainy season.

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Regarding bivalent vaccine boosters, the Minister said the Saint Lucia government continues to work with the Pan American Health Organization to get the latest available medications.

“I do not know as of last week whether these boosters did arrive, but I know the Ministry of Health is attempting to access the latest COVID-19 medications,” Jn Baptiste told reporters.

But he said health officials are dissatisfied with the current COVID-19 vaccination rate.

Nevertheless, he said they hope Saint Lucians will see vaccination as an effective option in their general health care and not only in relation to COVID-19.

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The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) wants government to look into the vehicle issues surrounding the School Meals Services immediately because it is impacting the island’s most vulnerable – “our children”.

A Christ Church-located school received lunch from Schools Meals Services after 1:30 pm, almost two hours late, on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.

DLP Education Chair Melissa Savoury-Gittens told Loop News, “better needs to be done like yesterday”.

The woes at the Blackman and Gollop School, came after similar complaints arose at Welches Primary recently. Savoury-Gittens said that she conducted her research and learnt that the crux of the matter is transportation. She said in the case of Welches Primary, only one van was available to service all the schools catered to by the centre at Lancaster and Welches was way down the list and Highway 2A. As it relates to yesterday’s delay, she said again transportation was given as the excuse in Christ Church.

Savoury-Gittens said that the Schools Meals Services’ late delays are affecting the entire school, not only those who take school meals. She said that parents have complained to her and teachers have confirmed that they are directed to let all the students eat together at one time, even if the delivery is late. “So even the children who bring packed lunches have to eat late when the vans are late. It is not good!”

After almost two years at home, at this time when children should be getting the most out of the six hours of face-to-face schooling, Savoury-Gittens asserts, “This is another disruption. It disrupts the whole school day. Teaching cannot resume until the children are fed. They are hungry and agitated obviously. Big adults sometimes cannot work when hungry, so what about these little ones? It is just another disruption in their day and brings learning to a halt.”

Aware that on the other hand there are parents and teachers who are complaining about the presentation of the dishes prepared by School Meals, she said that’s not her concern today, more importantly, is the time of arrival. She stressed, “Let it be there and let it be on time so that school can carry on as usual.” She said the high amount of food wastage because students “do not like how it looks, so they do not eat it,” is a matter for another day.

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Mercredi 12 Octobre 2022 – 11h11

Madininair, l’agence de la qualité de l’air a déclenché ce mercredi 12 octobre une procédure d’alerte dans le cadre d’un épisode de pollution atmosphérique.

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