Health fair attracts River Valley residents
Nine villages in the Belize District were invited to a community health fair today sponsored by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with several other agencies. And as News 5 found out, the residents who turned out were eager to learn how they can lead healthier lives.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Tuberculosis was just one of the many health problems discussed with school children and residents from the Belize River Valley Area. The one-day fair was held to promote healthy lifestyle practices among the people from the nine rural communities. Since the area’s only health clinic was established some fifteen years ago, the residents have been complaining about a number of ailments including diabetes, hypertension, asthma, gastroenteritis, and skin problems among others.
Paulette Martinez, Teacher, Belize River Valley
“Most of the communities don’t have running water and a lot of people are still using the latrines or some people are still using the river as their main source of drinking water. I don’t think it is healthy, as we all know a lot of diseases are caused from the water. And also, we have a lot of stray animals that stool around the communities and we have children running around barefoot and they can also pick up a lot of disease from that.”
Today, the community residents received free medical services as part of the promotional health activities. Rural Health Nurse Bernadette Smith-Flowers says since she has been in the area for more than ten years she has been encouraged by the effort the residents have made to improve their health.
Bernadette Smith Flowers, Rural Health Nurse
“We serve about nine villages behind here and they need this service because not everybody can get to Belize when they want to. Because if they have to take a bus to go to Belize to get service, they would have to find food, travelling a lot of things apart from going for whatever they need to go for. So this is well needed within our area.”
The fair included exhibits from schools and presentations by various organisations including PAHO, HECOPAB, Programme For Belize, Youth For the Future, Alliance Against AIDS, and the Public Health Bureau.
Dr. Jose Lopez, Manager, Central Health Region
“We try and make them know that we have a nurse here, we have our community nurse’s aides and if there is some problem that we cannot handle here at this health centre–as you know this health centre, there are nine rural communities covered–and after this, they are referred either to health centres here in Belize City, or to the Karl Heusner Hospital if it is a big emergency.”
As part of the initiative, a healthy environment poster competition and a food and nutrition competition were launched in the primary schools and high schools in the River Valley area.
