SIXTY-FOUR year old Perlene Smith has had a pain in her stomach for months, she thinks it’s an ulcer but she hasn’t been able to afford to go to the doctor to find out for sure.

Her 14-year-old granddaughter Kimberly has also been equally puzzled by the profusion of pimples on her face and back. They hope its just acne on a teenager but have not been able to afford medical care.

On Thursday, they were among dozens of persons who took advantage of a health fair staged by the Urban Development Corporation at the People’s Arcade in Montego Bay. They, along with others, got free medical care from councillor for the Railway Gardens Division, Dr Ucal Thompson.

Others received advice from the persons working in the various booths set up. Those represented included the Registrar General’s Department, the Solid Waste Management Authority, the National Housing Trust, the Public Health department, and the National Drug Abuse Council.

Queries about how to add a name to a birth certificate topped the list of those asked of Patricia Miller-Ward who manned the RGD booth. She had fielded inquiries from 15 individuals after about an hour at the fair.

The persons in the NHT booth mainly answered questions from those who had stopped making contributions and wanted to resume so that they could take advantage of the Trust’s benefits.

“If at all they were registered, we need to do an assessment to ascertain the period and the amount for which they are outstanding,” explained NHT loan administrator and complaints manager Donovan Evans.

He said the NHT had erected a booth to tap into the large population at the arcade as well as surrounding communities in Railway Gardens.

“We realise that there is a large, self employed population here in the arcade and in the immediate environs, many of whom are not contributing. And so we are here to tell them how they can get on board and the benefits that we offer at the NHT,” Evans said. “We provide mortgages, build on own land loan, open market loans and we do this to the tune of $800,000 with an interest rate that is about the best on the market right now. It ranges between two and nine percent.”

He added: “We have also had persons who are self employed come in to find out how they can go about getting housing units. So far we have been here for about 45 minutes we have had about 15 persons.”

Increased breeding activity in mosquitoes, the potential risk of diseases like dengue and the need to have food establishments licensed were high on the health department’s list of topics.

“Since the recent heavy rains there is a possibility that there will be a proliferation of mosquitoes breeding and that heightens the possibility of mosquitoes spreading diseases, especially dengue,” said acting public health inspector Courtney Watson. “So we are hoping to heighten the public’s knowledge of what they can do, especially around the house and the workplace, to ensure that there are no breeding places provided for the mosquitoes. Also we’ll be talking about the licensing of food establishments, how they can get their license and why it’s compulsory for them to do so.”