Government and Church leaders say lifestyle disease have reached epidemic levels in the Pacific.
Representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church recently met with Dr. Isimeli Tukana, who serves as non-communicable diseases advisor to the government of Fiji.
Trans Pacific Union Mission health director, Dr. Paul Wood, and Fiji Mission health director, Dr. Alipate Vakamocea, met with Dr. Tukana to see how the Church and government can continue to tackle the huge problem of lifestyle diseases, which have reached epidemic levels in the Pacific.
During the meeting, attendees discussed the 10,000 Toes Campaign along with one of the campaign’s key initiatives, the Live More Abundantly program.
The rollout of Live More Abundantly, which is a contextualized version of the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP), will commence in January 2019.
The Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA) is partnering with Adventist Health in launching this program.
Dr. Tukana offered his unreserved support for the program and for the development of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between ADRA and the Ministry of Health in Fiji. An MOU is currently being developed.
Earlier this year, Seventh-day Adventist church leaders met with Dr Geoffrey Kenilorea, director of the Department of Non-Communicable Diseases for the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health.