A TOTAL of 124 health leaders from each Honiara Seventh day Adventist (SDA) Church, including some other health professionals successfully graduated from 10,000 Toes Live More Abundantly (LMA) Training Programme.
The training is part of the diabetes prevention strategy rollout which will take at least nine months to complete. It involves the identification of facilitators to run the programme, training the facilitators, offering community health checks, analysing the results and sending invitations to pre-diabetics & diabetics to attend the LMA programme.
The LMA programme consists of 18 sessions rolled out over nine weeks, which will be followed by monthly meetings thereafter. Health checks including an interview, measurement and blood test, will be conducted thrice – the first one at the beginning of the programme, the second in the sixth week and the third at at the conclusion. A follow-up health check is very valuable at 6 months to monitor the progress and offer further support.
Transpacific Union Mission Health Director and 10,000 toes Campaign Coordinator, George Kwong, who is lead facilitator of the LMA Programme, in his final speech said Solomon Islands was the biggest LMA class that went through the training in the history of LMA Training Programme.
He said it took Fiji 2 years to get 124 participants trained for LMA but in Solomon Islands, it took only one weekend.
“The real challenge is when are you going to use your skills and when are your church[es] going to get together and run your first LMA training.
“I want you to go back now and sit down at a church and start to plan out what you are going to do within the next six months of this year. And at least, you can have one LMA from each church before the year ends,’’Mr Kwong said.
Transpacific Union Mission (TPUM) SDA Office in Suva, Fiji, with the 10,000 toes Office fully funded and facilitated the training with the support from SDA Mission Health Department in Honiara.
Two facilitators from the 10,000 toes Regional Office in Suva, Fiji, facilitated the training, which started last Friday and ended on Sunday.
The graduation was held at the Maranatha Dining Hall on Tuesday night and was witnessed by the President of SDA Church, Pastor David Filo and Associated Health Director of Solomon Islands Mission (SDA), Gad Koito.
– By Denver Newter
