HEAL International held their first medical mission in Labasa on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji. The camp was held over Friday 21- to Saturday 22August in Labasa Muslim Primary School.

The team provided free services including eye exams and free glasses for children with the local Razzak Optometrists, medical checkups for all the Fijian locals, CPR training, Women’s Health education, and physiotherapy and occupational therapy consults.

The team consisted of eight doctors, two physiotherapists, one dentist and one occupational therapist from VIC, NSW, ACT, QLD and SA. The lead for this mission was Dr Maureen Khan, a Consultant Emergency Physician in Queensland, who is of Muslim Fijian background.

Prior to the HEAL team’s arrival, the school had long queues and a non-stop flow of eager locals of every age and faith. Over the course of the two-day camp, 150 children received eye exams, 257 adults received health check-ups, 44 people had physiotherapy consults, 15 people needed occupational therapy, and 56 women attended women’s health sessions.

It was identified that 1 in 6 needed prescription glasses. Among adults, it was also noted health literacy and engagement was low and wait times were long in the public health sector. These findings suggested that there were children who had been unknowingly struggling in and out of class, and that adults had unidentified or sub-optimally managed non-communicable disease like hypertension, diabetes, chronic pain, and more.

HEAL is a not-for-profit humanitarian charity subsidiary of the Australian Islamic Medical Association committed to providing health services to underprivileged and minority Muslim communities around the world. This was the first large scale medical mission that demonstrated HEAL’s capabilities and served as a launchpad for further international projects promoting healthcare for underserviced parts of our ummah.

Please donate via healinternational.org.au to help propel their outreach, enable dawah through service, and share the good deeds. “The merciful are shown mercy by the Merciful. Be merciful on the earth, and you will be shown mercy from above.” ( Hadith Sunan al-Tirmidhi)