Good turnout for St Michael’s Care Fair

The St Michael’s RC parish in Maracas Valley, St Joseph, in collaboration with the Maracas St Joseph Health Centre, hosted a Community Care and Health Fair on the parish grounds on September 6 and 7.

The event provided a wide range of health services, including dental care, vision and hearing tests, blood glucose and cholesterol screenings, Body Mass Index (BMI) counselling, mental health support, child assessments, and lactation guidance.

Many people turned out to partake of the free services offered at the Fair, which also catered to the little ones, as fun activities for children, such as face-painting and a bouncy castle, were organised by the Ministry of Health and the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA).

Local barbers, hairdressers, and spa technicians also volunteered their services, offering pedicures to seniors and haircuts for children returning to school.

On September 7, the Cancer Society of Trinidad & Tobago provided mobile cancer screenings for 35 individuals, including Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) tests for men and pap smears and breast examinations for women.

Parish priest, Fr Mikhail Woodruffe O Carm, told Catholic News’ Altos that the fair was organised in response to the community’s limited access to essential health services.

Some of the organisations in attendance included: Diagnostic Research Educational and Therapeutic Centre for the Hearing Impaired (DRETCHI), the National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited (Nedco), the Agricultural Development Bank, the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco), government ministries, and Visual Eyes. – KB