The Universal Wonderful Street Academy (UWSA), a not-for-profit charity child-oriented organisation has held a health screening exercise for about 1600 residents of Jamestown and Old Ningo where the organization’s activities are based.

The organisation, as part of recent activities, to mark the Easter festivities, partnered with medical experts from Europe to screen some 800 residents in Jamestown in a two-day health check and about 900 people in Old Ningo.

The medical team offered on-the-spot medication and donated more than 500 eyeglasses to both adults and children.

Founder and Director of the UWSA, Louis Yeboah Wonder-Doe said the academy which provides free education, free meal and uniforms to the children, also has the responsibility to ensure that the health status of parents in the areas are occasionally checked.

Wonder-Doe, who is also the Noryaa Manste (Developmental Chief) of Mantse Ankrah Royal Family of Otublohum, and known by his stool name Nii Kwanchi II, asked the residents to critically consider what they eat to avoid lifestyle diseases.

The screening activity provided an opportunity for residents to check eye sights, blood pressure and sugar level, diabetes, and heart diseases, among several ailments.

Dr Evangelia Hammacher, a medical doctor from Germany who led the screening, said it was important for residents to make health checks a priority.

She said key ailments discovered among beneficiaries which were B.P, heart problems, and eye ailments are conditions that are expensive to treat and as such, it was important for checks to be done at early stages in order to increase the chances of treatment.

“The medical team has found that a lot of the people have heart problems and high sugar as well. It is important for the UWSA to come to their assistance but more importantly, they must also do well to protect themselves from unhealthy lifestyle” Dr Hammacher said.

A social worker at the German Youth Office, Mr Daniel Hammacher who is part of the health team, said whiles organizations like the UWSA continue to give their best for the betterment of communities, individuals must also have the responsibility to at least do personal health checks twice a year.

He asked other organizations to emulate the UWSA to occasionally assist residents in deprived areas across the country with health checks and other philanthropic gestures.

The UWSA, which has been operating for more than eleven years in Jamestown and its surrounding communities, has been providing free education for children in the area, with lessons in basic arithmetic, English language, social studies, ICT, traditional drumming and entrepreneurial development.

The organisation has impacted more than 2000 children since its inception in the Jamestown community.