By Alfred Sasako
BUY-One-Feed-All is the theme of a four-day fundraising drive which Atoifi Hospital staff and nursing students are launching in Honiara this morning.
The group which arrived in Honiara on the weekend is launching a DVD on the Buy-One-Feed-All theme at the Maranatha Hall in east Honiara.
The group which comprises some 52 staff and students is led by none other than the Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jason Diau, the only doctor who has served the hospital for the last four years.
Their mission is to raise funds for the Patients’ Feeding Programme at the Hospital.
“I guess it is the sustainability of the programme that concerns us,” Dr Diau told Island Sun yesterday.
It cost the hospital around $50, 000 to feed the patients last year, which recorded 1, 500 admissions. In the same period the Out-Patients attended some 24, 000 cases in 2017.
But the group is here not just to ask for your help. They too are offering help in return.
They are offering free health checks in a “Health Expo Programme,” being organised to coincide with the fundraising drive. This will be officially launched at nine o’clock this morning. It ends on Wednesday.
“Those want to be checked are expected to go through eight stations being set up. At the end, their data would be fed into the machine which would show the result for individuals to see whether or not they are healthy.
“The Health Expo Programme is a concept developed by the Weimar institute and Wildwood lifestyle in the United States. It systemically looks at eight main factors relating to disease prevention and physical, emotional and spiritual health. These are – nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, air, rest and trust in divine power,” Diau explained.
“Interested individuals and organisations are welcome to be part of the free heath check programme as it is free for members of the public,” he said.
Diau said the hospital is grateful for the financial support provided by the government each year, adding it is getting thinner as the cost of running the hospital increases each year.
The hospital, which currently operates on a $3.4 million budget, is now looking at alternate energy as fuel is consuming something in the order of $400,000 a year.
