As the adage goes, “Health is Wealth”. Community health programmes such as the activities carried out at the SGM Penang Culture Centre on November 2, 2008 in conjunction with World Diabetes Day 2008 help to build a healthy community. These were the words spoken by Dr Dicky Ng Teik Kee, Chairman of the Penang Branch of the Malaysian Diabetes Association.

SGM Penang co-organised the event together with the Malaysian Diabetes Association and the Penang Municipal Council.

Over 500 people turned up for the “World Diabetes Day” exhibition and health screening. There were various blood tests, body mass index test, bone density scan as well as the special HBA1C test for the first 50 walk-in diabetics. There were also counseling sessions, health lectures, sampling and sale of health supplements and products.

In her opening speech, Mrs Yap-Yeoh Joo Saik expressed her hope that after listening to the very interesting and illuminating talks on diabetes, all would be able to understand the disease better and take better care of their health through the foods they ate and take the necessary preventive measures to lead strong and healthy fruitful lives for themselves and their children.

This was followed by Dr Ng’s speech, in which he stressed the significance of such an awareness event in teaching people how to monitor their own health as diabetes is essentially a “lifestyle disease.” Later, in an interview, he said that, “In Malaysia, the increase of diabetes cases is higher than the world average. It is going to be an uphill battle.”

In his speech to launch the Diabetes Awareness Day, Mr Phee Boon Poh, Chairman of the Penang Health, Welfare and Caring Society, as the representative of the Chief Minister of Penang, said that practising a healthy lifestyle was a preventive measure against illnesses. He commented that today, people take many things for granted and divert from practicing a healthy lifestyle, which we need to change in order to become healthy. Phee also hailed the community event as an excellent example of the many meaningful contributions from NGOs, which supplement the work of the local government.