Over one hundred children in Dominica have received free assessment under the World Pediatric Program (WPP) over the past few days. The WPP mission is to heal children and advance pediatric healthcare in the world. Focus was also placed on speech and behaviour.
Pediatrician on the Winston Ward at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital Pediatric Project, Dr. Dwayne Laville said the initiative has greatly benefited the children of Dominica.
“This mission that they are having right now is of tremendous importance. As you already know the number of children that we are seeing within the two-day period is approximately 100,” he said during an interview.
According to Dr. Laville, speech difficulties, “this may be something that we do not actually have a lot of assistance with, because I do believe that we may have privately a speech therapist, but in terms of the outreach it is one that is of tremendous importance and we are eternally grateful for the service that they are providing.”
He stated that there is a great number of children with that difficulty.
“The WPP provides its services free of charge, so this is in fact free of charge to our Dominican people and to the children,” he stated.
He mentioned that the main goal of the WPP is healing the children and providing healthcare for those who are unable to access it otherwise.
“It is free to the children, all they had to do was show up,” Dr. Laville reiterated.
He hopes that after the situation is assessed necessary recommendations can be made.
“Afterwards we put together not just for ourselves, but the ministry as the necessary recommendations, working with WPP as to how they can further follow-up with these children and what are the necessary goals that we can set for them and hopefully they may be able to come back for other missions in the future,” Dr. Laville indicated.
Meanwhile, he advised parents that they should seek medical attention for their child/children whenever they notice something is wrong with him/her.
“The first thing may not necessarily be that you run into the hospital, but you have available as the country makes it possible, doctors in each district, you can follow-up with your nurses….” He advised.
He continued, “Reach out to your teachers in each area. They know very well that they can reach out to the health team in each district at any point in time.”
Dr. Laville added, “When it becomes an issue where we can seek attention as early as possible, because the earlier some of these problems can be addressed we can have better results in terms of a better way you can facilitate to help these children have a normal life and the development in terms of their intellectual capacity.”
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