By Asenath Were
Uganda Christian University’s director of medical services, Dr. Geoffrey Mulindwa has advised students to respect their bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit. He said this during the Uganda Christian University (UCU)’s annual Health Awareness Week which was held under the theme ‘My body, a temple of the Holy Spirit,’ on March 4-7.
This year’s event aimed to address some of the challenges the students face, such as sex and sexuality, substance and drug abuse, and mental health. Dr Mulindwa pointed out that these challenges have been recurring every semester, and he therefore called on students to be health-aware because it is a lifetime concern. ,
“Unless we appreciate that this body of ours was bought at a price by Jesus Christ and that it is not our own, we cannot afford to throw in, or at it, everything that comes our way.”he said
Dr. Mulindwa explained that the health awareness week is an opportunity to talk to students about being aware of their health and the community generally amidst their busy schedule.
“We have had a good start; the students are enthusiastic and attend the activities. We have activities like screening for cancer, blood donation, mental health conversations, deworming, eye and dental checkups.” He disclosed.
Joshua Mulungi Ssembatya, the minister of health, and the MP faculty of public health nursing and midwifery from the 26th guild government, said that if our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, then one cannot just use them unnecessarily.“ You have to take care of yourself while knowing you are working on yourself in line with the spiritual realm,” Ssembatya emphasized.
Mulungi said that this year’s health awareness week was packaged differently to benefit the students: “Someone gets to know their HIV status and knows how to work on their health depending on the results. People are stressed with problems like tuition and relationship issues, so they get counseling services,” he said.
Mercy Enid Amoding, a third year law student , revealed that as a person who never goes to the hospital, she was excited about the health awareness week being on campus because she fears hospitals and hates their atmosphere:
“But since it is on campus, it is okay because I am seeing other people donating blood and checking their eyes, it has motivated me too to donate blood. I am excited about it, and I feel like I can finally tick something off my list,” Amoding said.
