MORE than 100 children from Maverley, St Andrew have benefited, for a sixth year, from subsidised dental, optical and general medical screening in time for back to school.

The Back-to-School Health Fair was organised by the Corporate Area-based Rotary Club of Trafalgar New Heights with funding from the CHASE Fund and JN Small Business Loans Limited.

Several volunteer private doctors and medical professionals from organisations such as the FISH Clinic and community members, as well as volunteers from the JN Foundation ACT!ON corps and the Maverley Police Youth Club, were on hand to help coordinate the event, which allowed children to access a range of tests and checks.

Club president, Horace “Hugo” Matthews, says good health is important if children are to learn effectively.

“Very often a lot of the attention is placed on getting all the back-to-school supplies in order and parents sometimes don’t have the time or money to take their children to the doctor to ensure they are in good health before they go to school in September,” he said, underscoring the reason for the health fair’s focus on children, although he noted that general and optical screening were also made available to the elderly.

And, Maverley residents were grateful to the group of young professionals for the intervention.

“Even though the health centre is free, most times you have to find the bus fare. Right here you only paying $200 to get to see the doctor, eye specialist and dentist,” said Nicola Lyons who took her five-year-old daughter to benefit from the subsidised health care.

“I had to also make sure that my neighbour and friends send their children,” she added.

Shalie Cooke was also thankful for the sixth staging of the event.

“It saves me what I don’t have,” the young mother of two boys, who has been a patron since the Health Fair’s launch, said.

“My kids benefit from it. The money that I would spend to do all of this I can use the money I would have spent to do back-to-school shopping,” she added.

The event was also supported through contributions by jerk specialists, Scotchies; Consolidated Bakers through its Purity brand; Nestle, Coldfield Manufacturing and Eyeland Eyewear.