Youth ambassadors mobilise for community health
Ambassadors conducting the health screenings for their local community.
More than 40 members of the Burnscreek Hi-way Wellness Seventh-day Adventist Church, Solomon Islands, supported a community health screening on Sunday, June 29, led by a team of 10,000 Toes ambassadors—many of them youth.
Using the SolPEN protocol, the ambassadors screened participants for major non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors. SolPEN is a systems-based initiative that enables government health facilities to identify people who have NCDs and to treat them effectively.
The results painted a sobering picture:
- 1 in 3 participants showed an elevated risk of high blood pressure
- 1 in 4 were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes
- 1 in 10 had a 10 per cent or greater risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years
In response, the church is preparing to launch a nutrition-focused lifestyle intervention program in the coming weeks. The initiative will provide practical, supportive pathways to reduce modifiable risk factors among those identified as vulnerable.
The church plans to expand the screening initiative to other local congregations, aiming to reach more families and empower them to take control of their health.
The Burnscreek church acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) NCD Program, which provided screening kits, forms and nutrition resources. They also thanked the 10,000 Toes Campaign Solomon Islands for training ambassadors and supporting local NCD prevention efforts.
10,000 Toes is an initiative of Adventist Health (South Pacific) aimed at combatting the epidemic of diabetes and other NCDs across the Pacific.
