A medical officer from the Malaysian Armed Forces helps someone get registered while others look on.
KUCHING: Yesterday’s health screening setup at Plaza Merdeka looked a little different from usual, mainly because of the number of armed forces personnel present.
However, there was no cause for alarm unless your cholesterol level is already out of control.
Together with the Malaysian Armed Forces, officers from the US Navy’s Pacific Partnership 2017 (PP17) were at Plaza Merdeka armed with eye test charts, a dental teaching puppet with a full set of teeth, and rubber recreations of food samples in recommended portions.
Also very prominent was the blood donation section, courtesy of Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) Blood Bank, for those who want to give back to the community.
First coordination staff officer Lt Col Fauzi Mamat from the Defence Ministry’s Joint Forces Headquarters Military Health Division said the event was held in conjunction with the PP17.
“This is among the events we have planned with the US Navy, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and local agencies.”
The event aimed to foster relationships between the forces and the public. Apart from yesterday’s event, they will also be visiting orphanages and schools, giving food to the needy and homeless, and working with various agencies and NGOs.
The blood drive carried on until mid-afternoon, and there was also a performance by Pipeline, the US Pacific Fleet band.
According to Lt Yamel Ramirez, who led the US Navy side of yesterday’s event, there were 10 Americans, one Australian, 10 Japanese and five Malaysians involved.
Many of them were medical and health personnel.
Ramirez himself is a dentist.
“This is my first tour to Sarawak. We are thankful to our partners in Malaysia for helping us out. We plan to continue this relationship and work together going forward,” he told reporters.
PP17 and its Malaysian partners arrived in Kuching on April 14 onboard expeditionary fast transport USNS Fall River. They will be here until April 22.
Pacific Partnership is the US Navy’s humanitarian and civic assistance mission conducted with and through partner nations, non-government organisations and other US and international government agencies to execute a variety of humanitarian civic action missions in the Pacific Fleet area of responsibility.
The partnership is designed to strengthen alliances, improve US and partner capacity to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and improve security cooperation among partner nations.