(From left) Heart Foundation of Jamaica executives Deborah Chen, executive director; Nola Phillpotts-Brown senior manager, health administration; and Sophia Dallen, medical supervisor, recently met with representatives of Australian Aid, Tracey Haines and Lucretia Birch. Haines and Birch’s visit was to assess the Blood Pressure Control through Community Action project, an eight-month venture which commenced in April 2015.

It was aimed at strengthening the capacity and community outreach of Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) member organisations around hypertension detection and control initiatives to ultimately reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It was implemented by the Heart Foundation of Jamaica.

The project is part of a larger multi-phased initiative aimed at strengthening the capacity of HCC member civil society organisations to more effectively deliver interventions aimed at contributing to a World Health Organization-determined set of nine voluntary, global non-communicable disease targets agreed to by Caribbean governments and including reduction in raised blood pressure by 25 per cent by the year 2025.

The team visited the Rollington Town Health Centre for first-hand interaction with those who had benefited from the foundation’s services under the project. (Photo: Courtesy of Heart Foundation)