"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” late President John F. Kennedy. From 16th to 17th September, the Rwanda Pharmaceutical Students’ Association, RPSA, conducted an NCDs prevention campaign in the UR Huye Campus under the theme “Towards our UR Huye free from NCDs.”
The campaign aimed at precluding NCDs in the youth. Many of the habits leading to NCDs including tobacco use, poor eating habits, physical inactivity, hazardous alcohol consumption and air pollution according to NCD Alliance’s 5x5 agenda, are more prevalent in the youth, and hence no better place else to start such a campaign than in the youth. Consequently, RPSA came to initiate the campaign from their home campus, UR Huye, which houses more than 8,000 students aged between 19 and 26 years.
One of the measures taken by our government is to improve early testing, detection, treatment, and actual impact on non-communicable diseases at any cost, 'invest to protect'. As a pharmacy student, who attended the RPSA – UR Huye Campus NCDs prevention Campaign, I’m here to take you through the course of our campaign.
The campaign started off with a radio talk hosted on campus radio AGACIRO on Friday 16th September, where RPSA Public Health Officer Sylvestre IRADUKUNDA, and Research and Education Officer Juvenal UWAYISENGA shed light on Non-Communicable diseases, the current situation and what ought to be done in accordance. They also invited the entire campus to join RPSA in the mass sport and NCDs screening that was scheduled the next day.
The campaign continued Saturday morning when students who attended mass sports gathered at Barthos Hotel and despite the cold weather, the attendees managed to cross the roads of the city of Huye and back to the campus stadium where the activity was capped off with some stretching. This activity was successfully carried out with the help of UR Huye’s Red cross team.
After stretching, the attendees were welcomed by the screening team in cooperation with Kabutare Hospital, who had a discussion with them about NCDs, their symptoms, their effects, and how to keep themselves free of NCDs. Then, the screening itself started. The attendants had to pass through five stands where they had their height, weight, BMI (body-mass index), blood glucose, and blood pressure measured, thereby given proper advice on how to proceed in their day-to-day lives by the counseling team in accordance to their results.
With over 137 people screened for NCDs, we turned our eyes to the field of UR Huye stadium where a friendly football match between the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) team and the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) team was being played and it ended with a 2-0 scoreline in favor of the CMHS team. The campaign was organized in collaboration with the Campus administration and Kabutare Hospital.
The campaign was closed by the remarks of the Campus administrator, Jean Bosco SHEMA whom himself attended the campaign and got screened for NCDs. He appreciated the initiative by the youth for the youth, reiterating that despite spending a number of hours in classes, students should take care of their health. He ended by vowing the campus will always support such campaigns and encouraged RPSA to carry on with that good pace.