Caption: Brigham Young University medical students share a light moment with the nurses and people of Navakai settlement in Nadi. Photo: SUPPLIED.
By JOSEPHINE NAVULA
Huge turnouts of people were treated to free medical clinics conducted by a group of medical students all the way from the United States of America, on Monday.
Bula Festival Committee Secretary, Winnie Silikula said the medical students were from Brigham Young University (BYU), and are all certified in their fields.
“The students are juniors at BYU whereas, one is a graduate student and they have all completed at least 4 semesters of nursing courses. All of them have clear background checks and are CPR certified,” she said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Bishop, Solo Kaumaitotoya said they are very thankful to the project that turned out to be a success.
” It was a very successful service project with a good response from the public, on speaking to the nurses that normally attend to the area, they stated that the usual number that would attend their clinics would number around six at the most however, this service project attracted 76 people with more who came after the team left,” he said.
Mr. Kaumaitotoya said it was very encouraging to see people taking their time out to get themselves examined, and take advantage of the opportunity.
“The experience of attending such a service project for the ward was humbling to see those mothers, grandmothers, elderly men and their children walking to the clinic where it was set up to attend to free medical checks by the BYU student nurses. Most memorable was a gentlemen with homemade crutches which touched the girls hearts,” he said.
Resident of Navakai settlement, Mr. Padayachi expressed his gratitude on behalf of the community and said the people are blessed to be offered such opportunities.
“The Navakai settlement is where the less privileged live and the exposure was an eye opener and a very humbling experience to the BYU Nurses who shared their testimonies with emotion and love at our combined home evening that Nadi ward hosted in the evening.”
“As the Bishopric of Nadi, such work and service being provided and shown provided a deeper spiritual meaning when it is applied at the community level as another way of knocking on doors to being a part and engaging with others in indirectly sharing the gospel ,” he said.
He also expressed his sincere gratitude to the church, the nurses for sacrificing their time in inviting the medical students over to do a good course for the Navakai community.