Parents encouraged to make use of free health screening for their children

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By Carlena Knight

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Parents and guardians of children between the ages of five and 11 are being urged to take advantage of the opportunity to have their kids screened free of charge.

The health screening exercise, dubbed Paediatric Village, is being put on by the Rotary Club of Antigua Sundown and will offer children in that specific age group the chance to get a range of health checks from a number of health professionals.

The initiative is making its return after being postponed due to the Covid pandemic, and it is the brainchild of former president Dr Jenelle Allen.

She explains just how the programme came into being.

“I just wanted to put on something in a more public environment to have everyone exposed to as much medical care and different health talks in the pediatric range. We do that all the time for adults but we never had anything for kids. So, we decided at the Rotary Club of Antigua Sundown as well as our partners over the years to try this out and we have had it for a few years.

“Kids come out, they get screened for vision issues, for dental issues, we also have nurses that come out as well that help us especially with screenings. Diabetes, blood pressure, BMI, and we also have other things like the dieticians who come out and actually talk to the parents and children about what sort of meals they should be having, and we also have a cooking section that actually shows how to cook these meals,” Dr Allen explained.

The Paediatric Village will take place this Saturday, September 24th at the TN Kirnon Primary School from 9am-1pm, and just like previous years, is packed with a number of activities for the children.

“You sign up with us once you’re there. We are going to have doctors on hand, dentists, dental technicians on hand. We are going to have nurses that are going to come out with us. We ae going to have fire safety talks and quite a bit of others talks. Cooking demonstrations, dieticians all of it. “We are going to have this on Saturday, so please come on out, it is going to be a packed event. We even have persons showing you self-defense so that should be fun, and we also have goodies and a few other companies who will come put some products on display that are good for children,” Dr Allen added.

Parents are also being advised to bring their children’s vaccination cards as well, as ‘nurses will be on standby to ensure that they are up to standard with the prerequisite shots’.

Dr Allen was speaking on the Observer AM show on Wednesday.

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