Over 600 Guyanese benefit from Humanity First Guyana medical outreach

Over 600 Guyanese persons have benefitted from medical services and the provision of dietary supplements and dental kits through a series of medical outreaches organised by Humanity First Guyana.
Services included blood pressure and sugar testing, Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) testing, blood donation, and ophthalmology services, among others.
The first outreach was hosted at St Cuthbert’s Mission up the Mahaica River, where a total of 165 residents benefitted, while another 265 were attended to at the Water Street outreach in Georgetown. Further, over 150 persons were attended to at the last outreach, held at the Guyana Police Force Officers’ Training Centre on Camp Road in Georgetown.
During an interview with this newspaper, Director of Marketing for Humanity First Guyana, Fahd Peerzada, disclosed that 100 officers from the Guyana Police Force were among the beneficiaries.

He added that over 100 reading and sight enhancement spectacles were provided to citizens who got their eyes tested.
The feedback has been great. For example, yesterday (Monday), you know, many of the Police officers are coming out to do get the services done, because they work long hours, he said.
The medical field is just one of the programmes that we do. We have food security, education programmes, orphan programmes, and community care programmes. All these programmes we re operating all year long, but this special programme with the people coming from overseas we do once a year, Peerzada explained.
Moreover, the medical outreach was held in collaboration with the Health Ministry, hence all serious medical cases were reported to the Ministry through the provision of referrals.
Peerzada explained that the organization would be conducting follow-ups with all the individuals who were referred to the Ministry for additional care.
The main purpose of our students is to shadow and kind of get the experience of the medical field, but most of our volunteers here are local and they re managing the process If any issue arises, for example someone tests positive for HIV, then we can follow up for them, or they can approach us and we will direct them to what is the next step, Peerzada said.
Humanity First Guyana is part of the international organization which is registered in 62 countries across six continents around the world. The non-profit organisation specializes in charity that provides disaster relief and long-term development assistance to the vulnerable. The organisation is run by volunteers with diverse skillsets, and has access to thousands of extra volunteers worldwide.
A total of nine international medical students, a doctor from Humanity First International and 21 locals participated in the Guyana outreach. (G1)