Posted by Graham Burt on May 04, 2019
 
 
 
 
AG Ignatius Ndzinge was keen to reintroduce the “medical camp” concept into the club’s project agenda and he in listed the help of Honorary Rotarian Dr Yash Gureja who had organized a number of health days when he was an active member of the club. Then they recruited Rtn Dr Sabine Ostmann. Otse was identified as a suitable venue. Finally, AG Ignatius co-opted PP John Cunliffe and Rtn Graham Burt onto the committee as they had been involved several of the health days in the past.
The Rotary Health and Wellness Day 2019 was born. The 4th May 2019 was selected as a suitable day. AG Ignatius and honorary Rtn Yash undertook a few trips to Otse and the Otse Primary School was selected as the site for the health day. PP John and Rtn Graham found a suitable site for the braai a few kilometres from Otse.
AG Ignatius enlisted the assistance of Diagnofirm to undertake the blood sugar testing. Honorary Rtn Yash sourced a team of volunteer doctors and medical staff from the Gaborone area. Rtn Sabine secured some assistance for Bamalete Lutheran Hospital in Ramotswa. Support was also provided by the District Health Management Team (DHMT). Inner-Wheel offered their support to provide refreshments to all the volunteers.
The day started with the Rotarians and Volunteers meeting at Avani Hotel at approximately 6 am.
The volunteers consisted of approximately 25 medical personnel, 3 Inner-Wheelers, 2 youth exchange students. There were 17 Rotarians plus 2 protentional members and 2 family members.
PP John and Rtn Graham set off from Phakalane at 05:45 and headed direct to Otse. They were the path finders and placed direction signs at the first turn into Otse and then along the route to the school. They arrived at the school at 07:00 and found nothing was prepared plus no marque.
Just before 07:30 the marque team arrived and started erecting the marque. Not long after, the Rotarians and volunteers started arriving.
The Rotarians and volunteers then sent up the 5 rooms that had been allocated. Ladies from Inner-Wheel set up a tea and coffee station for the working parties in the school kitchen.
At approximately 09:00 the official opening began, and this ran until 10:00 when the testing and screening started. The flow was firstly Registration then Blood Pressure followed BMI (body mass index), Blood Sugar, Counselling and Screening, then attendees were sent off to a Hearing Test, Cholesterol, Dental, Breast Examination and Eye Test dependant on the result of their screening. Finally, they finished at data capture and received a hamper consisting of an apple, banana, water and juice.
The last person was register shortly before 14:00 and the final count was 149 individuals but only 111 actually reported to Data Capture. Based on the captured data, a minimum of 439 services were provided on the day. A number of individuals were given referrals from the doctors, who carried out the various screening, to take to their hospital or clinic. The details of the last person was captured at approximately 15:00.
PE Casmir Jongman and some of the group set off to the braai area at about 14:00 to start the fires and then start preparing the food. The balance of us arrived at about 15:45.
At about 16:30 people started wandering off home with the last of the diehards leaving just after sunset after cleaning up the area.