By Gifty A. Boateng
The African-American Association of Ghana (AAAG), has held its Annual Health Fair in Accra, in the Greater Accra Region.
As part of the one day event, held at the W.E.B. Dubois Centre at Cantonments, the Association held a free health screening, for its members and the general public.
At no fee, members of the public walked in to have screenings for all kinds of diseases and made enquiries from health professionals.
Some of the activities were hearing screening, full health and dental screening, chiropractic demos among others.
The day served as an opportunity for members of the Association to fraternize, share of insights on everything from managing chronic pain to eating for optimal health.
This year’s event partnered the medical vendors, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for both Diaspora and the public, the Centre for Traditional Medicine and others.
Theresa Kwakye, a former President of the African-American Association of Ghana in an interview with TheNewRepublic, disclosed this is their third consecutive year.
According to Kwakye, who has been in Ghana for 40 year, the programme was designed to cover screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, eye and dental as well as mental, physical, wellness and traditional medicine.
She encouraged the public to always come around and take advantage of the programme and live sickness free lives.
“Anybody at all can walk in here today and have the benefit of any of these checks for free, we are not charging anything. No entry fee, no fee for any of the checks today” Theresa Kwakye said.
Shannon Akosua Magee, the current President of AAAG said for a while were doing this fair informally but opted to expand by making it formal for the past few years adding that so far, it has been great.
She also encouraged everyone in and around the Cantonments area to take advantage of the rare opportunity offered by the Association and its partners.
“Any person in Ghana qualifies to be here so far as you made your way to the Dubois Centre, you can access any of the service. We have children, we have families, we have even tourists that are visiting the W.E.B. Dubois Centre that end up also going to take the screen”, she said.
Asked what the aim of the fair and screening was she remarked “We are hoping to achieve a healthier community, we are hoping to have offered access and may be to cover some of the diagnostic screenings for the members so that they can get further follow ups if the need be.
So, for someone that aren’t getting proper healthcare this is an excellent way to speak to a physician”.
Since its inception decades ago, the Association has embarked on several activities designed to help society and government.
So far, AAAG has among others been offering different opportunities and has spearheaded charity works, partnered state institutions like the Ghana Education Service (GES) to organize essay competitions.
They have also offered scholarships and held programmes for a very important date on the calendar, the Black History month.