HEALING IN DANCEHALL

A patron checks out the condoms distributed at Uptown Mondays as part of JAHJAH Foundations’ ‘Healing in the Dancehall’.

SELECTORS spitting daring, witty one-liners between hit songs is not uncommon at Uptown Mondays, but when the words coming through the speakers are encouraging people to know their HIV status — now that is unexpected.

Last Monday, Jamaicans Abroad Helping Jamaicans At Home (JAHJAH) Foundation partnered with Whitfield ‘Witty’ Henry, the man behind Uptown Mondays, to bring doctors into the dancehall. Together, with help from Jamaica AIDS Support For Life, they offered patrons at the hugely popular weekly event free health checks and free condoms.

So, while disc jockeys turned the tables to the latest hits, transforming Savannah Plaza on Constant Spring Road, St Andrew into a typical dancehall with high fashion, alcohol, music blaring through speakers, and a few patrons showcasing the latest dance moves, patrons also had the opportunity to be screened for hypertension, diabetes and HIV.

Unorthodox? Most definitely, but the United States-based JAHJAH Foundation, which was founded by Dr Trevor Dixon in March 2011, is committed to helping improve the quality of health care delivered in Jamaica — even if that means delivering health care inside the dancehall.

“I know the owner of Uptown Mondays from Brooklyn, growing up as a teenager. When he came back to Jamaica, he did Uptown Mondays and we said, ‘How can we incorporate health care within the dancehall?’, and we came up with ‘Healing in the Dancehall’,” Dr Dixon told the Jamaica Observer.
Now in its third staging, ‘Healing in the Dancehall’ had a few naysayers at the beginning. However, Dr Dixon insisted that the event has grown significantly.

“It has changed a lot, in the sense that when we first did it, there was scepticism that these are dancehall people, they are not interested in HIV awareness, they just want to come and dance and have a good time,” he told Your Health Your Wealth.

He said attempts were made to discourage the foundation — which partners with Jamaicans and friends of Jamaica overseas to execute the mission on the ground in Jamaica — against doing tests inside the dancehall.

“We were discouraged from doing even the diabetes testing and hypertension, because they say diabetes testing won’t be accurate when people consume alcohol, and that’s not necessarily true. Because we have identified patients who have diabetes here (at Uptown Mondays), and they have gone to clinics and continue to be diabetic, other than the sugar would just have been elevated for the dance because they were drinking,” he explained.

He told Your Health Your Wealth that the 20 volunteers who travelled to Jamaica for JAHJAH Foundation’s annual Mission for Change, of which ‘Healing in the Dancehall’ is just one of several projects, are all licensed medical practitioners. Most of them are also not Jamaicans.

As patrons began filing into the venue about 2:00 am, many could be seen helping themselves to condoms which were placed on tables throughout the venue. A few stopped at the Jamaica AIDS Support For Life mobile unit at the entrance to ask questions as well as have HIV tests done.

By 2:30 am, patrons were milling about with buckets of alcohol in hand and volunteers among them were seen restocking the tables with condoms.

The organisers said they had at least 1,000 condoms to distribute.

“Know your status by the end of the dance,” one of the men commandeering the microphone said in-between songs, while also sharing information about JAHJAH Foundation and encouraging patrons to make use of the free health checks being offered.

“Big up di girl dem weh nuh ‘fraid fi get tested,” the selector said. “If yuh know yuh body clean, guh get tested and know your status.”

Questioned as to whether he was worried that the patrons might have been turned off after coming to Uptown Mondays to have a good time, but hearing health information instead, Henry replied: “Hell no!”

“It is a marvellous idea, because you know what happen, we bring the doctor to the dancehall,” Henry reasoned. “Because most of these people, when dem wake up, the day done again.

“So it is obvious when we do this, a nuff support and people love it,” he continued. “Worse, it free.”

The man behind the popular Uptown Mondays, an event that attracts a mix of patrons, including popular artistes such as Bounty Killer who was on location last Monday, as well as tourists who follow Jamaica’s dancehall culture, said ‘Healing in the Dancehall’ has got better each year.

Meanwhile, Dr Dixon explained that when bringing HIV and diabetes testing and awareness to the patrons, it is not done in a forceful manner.

“There are lots of tables here and we put the condoms down in a non-threatening way. We don’t force it on them… and they will take it,” Dr Dixon said. “Some of the females may not want to take it in front of their boyftriends, but some of them will take it.

“And each year we find that they are taking more and more condoms,” he said.

He continued: “And even the HIV testing, that is even the more interesting part of it. First when we came, maybe about five of six people got tested.”

He pointed out that the number increased last year and that he was hoping that even more patrons would have been tested at last Monday’s event.

When the Your Health Your Wealth team left Uptown Mondays at approximately 3:40 am, about 20 patrons had done HIV tests, according to one of the Jamaica AIDS Support representatives.

One patron, Chantal Bent, did both the hyertension and diabetes screenings when Your Health Your Wealth caught up with her, and she said the HIV test was next on her list.

Bent showed up at Uptown Mondays to party, but when she heard about the health checks being done she decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

From January 17 through 24, JAHJAH Foundation embarked on several projects as part of their annual Mission for Change.

Besides ‘Healing in the Dancehall’, the team of volunteers hosted health fairs, conducted echocardiogram screenings on high school athletes, as well as hosted a conference on paediatric cancer in collaboration with the Bustamante Hospital for Children, National Health Fund, Ministry of Health, South Eastern Regional Health Authority, and Columbia University, New York.

And, from what the Your Health Your Wealth team observerd at ‘Healing in the Dancehall’, though Mission for Change is about helping Jamaicans, the volunteers also had a blast dancing the night away to the latest dancehall hits.

“We are definitely looking forward to doing it again next year, because we look at sustaining projects, not just a one-time thing,” Dr Dixon shared. “To make ourselves feel good, we try to make an impact.”