28 Nov 2022

The inaugural Mookane Wellness Day will not only promote adoption of healthy living, but create community awareness of non-communicable diseases, which are claim many lives.  

Welcoming the guests to the event, which was organised by MindPower Movement, in collaboration with Mookane Clinic, Kgosi Borumolano Tshipana of Mookane said the event,  characterised by aerobics exercises and a five-kilometre walk, encouraged people to take issues concerning their health seriously.

On the day, the organisers also availed free health screening services such as cancer screening, pap smear and tests for blood sugar level, blood pressure, sexually transmitted infections, as well as blood donation.

Guest speaker, Makgabaneng Group executive director, Mr Tony Buru, said the event was organised in line with government’s Reset Agenda, seeking to promote both mindset and behavioural change.

Through collaboration with both National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), and MindPower Movement, which is a Non-Governmental Organisation, Mr Buru said the event was also born out of the need to sensitive the community about the importance of healthy living in controlling and preventing NCDs.

“Non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, sugar diabetes, hypertension and cancer are currently the major causes of death, hence the need to promote healthy living and behavioural change to save lives,” he said.

For his part, MindPower Movement executive director, Dr Godfrey Sebidie said the event was also meant to encourage and promote importance of regular medical check-ups.

“Fourty-six per cent of deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases.

This is why we found it necessary to organise this wellness day to sensitive the community about the dangers of unhealthy diets, as well as lack of regular exercise and medical check-ups,” he said.

Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, Dr Sebidie said, could help save many lives, provided people adopted healthier living standards.

Therefore, he encouraged members of the community to take responsibility of their health by making deliberate decisions to stick to eating healthy diets, doing regular exercise and going for medical check-ups.

Regular medical check-ups, he stressed, ‘are important because early diagnosis leads to early treatment’.

Dr Sebidie thanked Mookane leadership for embracing the initiative to hold the wellness day and for the role they played in making the event a success.

Actively involved in preparing for Mookane Wellness Day were; National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency, Makagabaneng Group, Mindpower Movement and Mookane Clinic. ENDS