06 April 2022 | Health.
Brothers and Sisters,
Let us all work together to improve the health of our nation.
Several generations of health care workers in Seychelles have dedicated the commemoration of World Health Day on the 7th April to celebrating the selfless and often thankless work health care workers do in our country.
The week 4th to 8th April this year, is also the World Health Worker Week, commemorated under the theme Build the Health Workforce back better.
This year and the past two years, health work has taken renewed significance not just because of the trials and tribulations of health care workers in addressing the vagaries of COVID-19, but also because of the fundamental transformation that the Government wants to see happen in the way our country addresses the health and well-being of our people.
Whilst the government is working extremely hard to improve several, dare I say, neglected health care infrastructures such as building a new hospital on La Digue, a new National Institute of Health and Social Studies and tackling other deficiencies to provide better working and learning environments for health workers, this is only part of the story.
The change we want to see is for the health care paradigm in our country to shift. All national policies and actions must henceforth take into consideration their health implications.
In particular, we must all pay much more attention to what we eat, what we drink and how we spend our free time. Unhealthy nutrition, relentless substance abuse (drugs, alcohol and nicotine in cigarettes) and lack of physical activity among our people continue to make the lives of health care workers extremely difficult. Obesity, diabetes, cancers and cardiovascular diseases have reached epic proportions, threatening our economy, our future and even our existence itself.
Government must give help to the health workers in addressing these matters and Government will. Government will take the lead in creating the right environment for people to take responsibility for their own health. There can be no place for inertia.
At the same time, every citizen must become a health worker for himself or herself, for his or her family and for his or her community. Each one of us must contribute to the task of promoting, preventing and restoring our health and the health of our family and community.
Today, I say this to all our citizens. Our health depends not on the health care that we receive from time to time from a health care worker but on the lifestyles that we lead. If we spend the whole of our lifetime destroying our health through our actions and omissions, we cannot expect health care workers to have an instant magic cure for every illness that we end up having. Let us think about that for a moment.
I cannot thank all our health care workers enough for the tremendous work that they do every day….Health Workers, I know that you do it from the goodness of your heart and not for the pay. Let us continue to work together to improve the health of our nation. Like your local theme this year states, “Take Care of Each Other”.
Courage to you all! Happy Health Workers Day, Happy World Health Day and Happy World Health Worker Week.
