Summary Report on Health Awareness and Assessment
- Itsekiri NextGen Project: 2022 Session 17 Report
- Topic: Health Awareness and Assessment
- Date: Saturday 07 May 2022
- Volunteers Present: 4
- Total Number of Attendees: 93
- Timings: 9:00am – 12:00pm
- Venue: Former Caravan 4, Aja-Pessu (Pessu Town), Warri
- Main Topic/Activity: Health Awareness and Assessment
- Resource Person: Nursing team
Summary
We set aside the 17th session of the Itsekiri NextGen project to promote health awareness and conduct an on the spot medical assessment of NextGen participants and their parents.
Healthy living and well-being is sustainable development goal 3 (SDG3), which focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the physical, developmental and emotional well-being of children as well as adults across the world in the last 2 years. For most of our participants, this would be the first time they would undergo a health assessment.
Session Delivery
The session began with an opening prayer by Mrs Patience Apoto Yalaju. She is a teacher at Dore Numa College, Warri. Mrs Patience got to know about the Itsekiri NextGen project through the session we had with Warri community Radio and promised to stop by whenever she visits Aja-Pessu (Pessu Town). She thanked the Itsekiri NextGen team for the mentorship work they are doing and gave some words of encouragement to the participants and volunteers.
This was quickly followed by a recap of the movie day. Participants gave a quick recap of the movie and the lessons learnt.
Mr Emmanuel Fregene led a brief talk and discussion on health and first aid. He went further to ask one of the participants to volunteer him/herself for him to explain how to resuscitate a dying person before being taken to the hospital or before a doctor arrives. A boy named Tsolaye volunteered himself.
Nurse Happiness came with a colleague to carry out an on the spot health assessment for participants and their parents. She also gave a brief talk on health. She said for the children, the evaluation will be on their weight, height, and temperature. In order to achieve this, her team came prepared with a scale, a thermometer, and a meter rule. They also brought a blood pressure measuring kit for the adults.
Mr Eworitse Wyse created a quick process for the health assessment by asking the participants to queue up according to their team.
It was a beautiful experience for the participants, as it was a hands-on experience for them to see how to monitor health parameters linked to healthy living that they have been taught in our previous sessions. Our parents were not left out as they came around to check their blood pressure as well as their temperature and weight. Members of the Itsekiri NextGen team also got assessed. They are also required to maintain a healthy lifestyle as they carry out their social work duties.
Our Recommendation
Health assessments and evaluations are conducted to ascertain an individual’s physical, developmental or mental health challenges. We conducted this health assessment and evaluated only a few criteria. There are several other criteria that we didn’t evaluate due to a lack of resources. Most primary care facilities should be carrying out health assessments for children to ensure there are no potential health problems they are suffering from. As a team, we believe this is currently out of scope for us but would suggest any other NGO involved in health can work with the primary care team in our individual communities to conduct health assessments. This would also help to promote health and well-being for the individuals.
Other key activities during the session
Participants borrowed books from the Itsekiri NextGen Library.
