The World Health Organization (WHO) observes World Health Day on 7th April every year. The theme of this year is “Universal Health Coverage [UHC]: Everyone, Everywhere” and the slogan of this year is “Health for All”. Under the supervision of the Community Medicine Department, the sophomores of the MBBS program organized activities of Public Health importance to commemorate this years’ theme that benefited different groups of people in the community.
The range of activities conducted in the main foyer of the GMU campus on April 12, 2018 included a presentation followed by a quiz that emphasized the importance of this years’ theme and the slogan, and various games such as World Health Day related pictionary, guessing game about selected organs and diseases, scavenger hunt for selected diseases, medicines, organs, etc. Educational brochures related to healthy living, healthy diet, health insurance and hypertension were freely distributed to the immediate community in the university.
Events in the university was followed by a Health Campaign at Thumbay Hospital Ajman, our Teaching Hospital on April 26, 2018. The campaign included educating the public about various aspect of health, creating awareness about the world health day theme and screening of the public for BMI, blood pressure and blood sugar. Over 200 people benefitted from this campaign and patients diagnosed with problems during the screening were referred to the specialists for further management.
The Dean, Prof. Manda Venkatramana, congratulated the Community Medicine Department and the medical students for the resounding response and success of this this activity and highlighted the commitment of the College of Medicine to community engagement activities and social accountability.
Prof. Shatha alsharbathi, Head of Community Medicine Department said that “the MBBS students under the supervision of my department conducted a successful health campaign during which they were actively involved in increasing awareness of the public about important health issues and screening the public for hypertension and obesity. I would like to express my special thanks to all students who showed enthusiasm in all activities of the campaign and helped in disseminating information to the public”.
Sakina Abazar: “This WHD activity boosted a sense of confidence in me and enabled me to improvise my communication skills with the public. It trained me on how to educate everyone about basic health issues in layman language and thus gain their trust Overall this experience was worth and very helpful in training of a medical professional”.
Ajay Kumar Jyothish: “The WHD program was very informative and I gained a lot of clinical exposure. It was a great experience interacting and communicating with the public. Sincerely would like to thank the community medicine department for giving us the opportunity to participate in such an event”.
View Gallery [Link]