Your health is indeed your wealth. This message that General manager Mr. Michael Campbell and the Communal Cooperative Credit Union wanted to get out seemed well received at a recent health fair organized by the credit union.

Hundreds of Communal members and members of the public at large turned out at the national Insurance Scheme car park on Saturday march, 24 to avail themselves of the wide range of screening and counseling services that were available free of charge.

The communal in its quest to provide this valuable service collaborated with the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) of the St. George’s University to make the health fair a reality.

Under the helpful hands of the doctors and student doctors of AMSA people got screening services in areas like blood pressure, blood glucose, hemoglobin and sickle cell. Also provided were sight and hearing tests, weight checks and other services all provided in an atmosphere of professionalism and friendly helpfulness by the SGU personnel.

Surveying the scene, General Manager, Campbell expressed satisfaction that this first attempt at the health fair for members and the public in general came off very well.

He rated the activity above expectation saying that the doctors from the SGU had brought enough chairs to accommodate such an activity based on their experience in holding previous health fairs. It turned out however the 60-65 chairs that are usually enough was far from adequate in this case where 100 chairs would have been more appropriate. In fact more seats had to be brought in from alternative sources to help out.

Campbell called the event a successful venture and is pleased that he, his staff and the institution were able to extend themselves in a social way to Communal members and other members of the population.

 

Campbell said although the organization he manages is primarily a provider of financial services he sees a direct link between health and saving money. He said once people look after their health they are saving money. He added that while it is always good to start looking after your health as early as possible it is never too late to start.

The manager said once you can detect an illness or a health problem early enough it prevents you from spending lots of money down the road, thus if you identify a potential health problem now you will be saving lots of money later on.

In Campbell’s words he prefers to help people to look after their health now and save rather than lending them money for medical purposes down the road.
He said the Communal sponsored event was not just a health fair for its own sake but an opportunity for the Communal to tell its members and the general public that by taking care of their health now they will be wealthy in some respect in the future.

 

Asked about the benefits for the credit union in holding such an activity, Campbell said although it is not the main goal, if the Communal gets some recognition and prominence from what it did on that day it would be good for the institution and its’ members.

He thinks that every corporate citizen has a right to give back something. In his case not just good products and interest or dividends but one must extend oneself in a way that people could see other benefits of being a member of the Communal.

By attending a health fair such as the one held a person can save $50.00 or more in consultation fees in a private doctor’s office and they get a whole series of tests that they don’t have to pay for.

Campbell said the Communal wants to show that it is a caring credit union and not just there for people’s money but also their health, their wealth and their future.

 

In his opinion one can’t always concentrate on driving a business but must also bring out the human touch and what was displayed at the health fair was the human side of the operation.

He said it is okay to show the types of products and services that the institution provides but it is also important to show that it cares, extending itself on a social level and do things for people that they just may not be able to afford for themselves. He added medical services are quite expensive.

 

As far as the support of his board of directors and staff is concerned, Campbell said it goes to show that if you do the right thing you will get support and as long as he has the support of the relevant people he will continue to organise more activities like this.

In fact so successful was the health fair and so happy were the SGU volunteers with the success that they are willing to do it again in six months.

Campbell said next time he intends to bring it to another community most likely outside of St. George’s.

President of AMSA, Mr. Asad Bandealy said when they were contacted by the Communal to do the health fair they were as usual willing and eager to work with this local organization or any other local organization to extend this service to the local population.

He said AMSA is trying to extend the scope of its health fairs and to make contact with as many patients as possible so working with the Communal was a very good experience.

The Communal helped them to get things organized, take care of some of the processes, patient intake, advertising and other necessary things that had to be done.

Bandealy said that the health fair turned out to be one of the bigger ones they have done so far.

Campbell extends sincere thanks to the AMSA volunteers for their time and effort in helping ensure that the event was a success and the National Insurance Scheme for allowing the use of their compound for the duration of the health fair.

It is, he thinks a clear indication of what cooperation and partnership can achieve.