THE Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) on Sunday hosted a medical outreach in the community of Saint Lawrence, Parika, which benefited more than 100 persons.
The initiative was motivated by the prevalence of indigent and vulnerable persons in that area, and the lack of an “up-to-date” medical facility, according to General Manager of the CIOG, Shameena Haniff.

She said the CIOG was informed that while there is a health centre in Parika, getting medication, or the doctor’s attention has proved to be quite a hassle.
“We saw 100 persons who would have [sic] benefited medically, and also items were distributed. The items which were distributed were: clothing for babies, both male and female, for children, as well as for adults; we had footwear, we had petroleum jelly, we had a number of vitamins, as well as other pharmaceuticals that were prescribed by the doctors, that were given to patients,” Haniff explained during an interview with this newspaper.

“So that’s why when we do the outreaches, we normally cater for a number of things. So, it’s not like a 50%, and then the other 50% is hanging. So, we’d normally do assessments in the various communities to have an idea as to what are some of the major complaints. What we find in most of the communities in Guyana, the major issues are diabetes and hypertension, and also anxiety to some level. Because we do have some level of mental health issues across Guyana, and you know, we try to address that by having counsellors also on board when we do these outreaches,” she noted.

The CIOG receives a lot of assistance from the HAP team from the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, the Guyana Medical Relief, the Guyana Cancer Foundation, the National Blood Transfusion Service, and the National AIDS Programme Secretariat.

The outreach on Sunday was made possible with the help of the HAP team, the Sewnarine family, Pharma X Consultancy Ltd, Guyana Medical Relief, Guyana Cancer Foundation, Rose Wood Foundation, NAPS, NBTS and Dauntless Therapeutic services.

The CIOG extended gratitude to the doctors, nurses and volunteers who assisted that day, noting their key role in ensuring that the outreach was a success.
“For that area, it was mostly populated with Amerindians, which is what we realised yesterday. So the residents there were very happy and they welcomed the outreach, and we are looking at doing a bigger one soon, at a more central point, that can service Tuschen, Hubu, Parika, and all the surrounding areas in that region,” Shameena explained.

The CIOG recently coordinated an outreach in Mahaicony, which saw numerous residents benefiting from supplies. There will be an outreach in Linden, in the month of May, as part of the organisation’s Ramadan celebrations.