Pharmacy students screen traders

Accra, March 28, GNA - The University of Ghana Pharmacy Students Association has organised a health education and free screening exercise for traders of the 31st December Market in Accra.

The programme, under the theme: 'Healthy Youth Fair' was to provide healthy living information to the people, check on their disease conditions and dispense de-wormer drugs to children.

They screened for health problems like diabetes, hypertension, and high blood pressure.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Mr Joel Kojo Anaman, President of the Ghana Pharmacy Students Association, said the objective of the programme was to pay back to society what they (students) had benefitted from it.

He said the students went into the stores to counsel the traders on healthy lifestyles before the screening.

Mr Anaman asked the traders to avoid self-medication and urged them to seek health information from professionals.

Madam Yvonne Yirenkyiwaa Esseku, National Chair of the Lady Pharmacists Association of Ghana, urged traders to take their health screening seriously in view of the nature of their work.

She said traders spent their time at the market places from dusk-to-dawn and hardly found time to check on their health, adding that aging came with health challenges.

Madam Esseku said the programme was very laudable as it was being held at the doorsteps of the marketers and advised the traders to take advantage of such initiatives to know their health conditions.

The Hope For Future Generation (HFFG), a women and children oriented non-governmental organisation, which supported the programme, took advantage of it to introduce to the traders its services.

Madam Jacqueline Daku-Mante, Communication Director of the HFFG, said the organisation's goal was to partner with community members to improve the health, education and socio-economic status of women and children through sustainable participatory process.

She said such processes afforded the people in the communities the opportunity to take critical decisions in improving their living standards.

Other sponsors of the programme were the Pharmacy Council, Pulb Pharmaceuticals, and Oson's Chemists.

GNA