8 May 2015 – The International Medical University’s Semester 10 medical students from Kluang and Batu Pahat conducted a much awaited IMU Cares Project at Kampung Yap Tau Sah in Kluang. Prior to this, meetings were held among the students, professors, and faculty of International Medical University (IMU) Kluang and Batu Pahat in order to ensure that this event will be a success. The date of the project was fixed on the 8 May 2015, with the venue at Kampung Yap Tau Sah, as this time, the IMU Cares Project event will be held in Kluang. 
Preparations were done, including meeting the ketua kampung of Kampung Yap Tau Sah personally to discuss the flow of events. VIPS were also invited. In the meantime, those participating in this event, all Semester 10 medical students from Batu Pahat and Kluang (88 students), were given different roles so that the delegation of jobs were equal and adequately managed. It took approximately 3 weeks of planning prior to the main event. The main event to be held for this project included health screening for hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. There are also a blood donation drive and organ pledge drive station as well as dental health checkup which will be held concurrently, thanks to the help from Hospital Enche Besar Khalsom, Kluang. This was well planned by the event management team as well as the logistics team, who helped in making sure that there were enough medical equipment prior to the event. 
One week prior to the main event, flyers were distributed to publicise the event to residents of Kampung Yap Tau Sah, and one day prior to the main event, the core committee visited the kampung so that banners could be hung at the balai raya, marking the central venue of the event. The long awaited day came. The response to the event was so good that by 8:00am, there were already residents of the kampung waiting for health screening. These few residents were first entertained by the medical students asking about their health condition and so on before proceeding to the screening. Soon after, at 8:30am, the team from Hospital Enche Besar Hajjah Khalsom Kluang arrived and set up stations for blood donation drive, organ pledge and so on. This is followed by the arrival of the dental truck. 
The whole event started at 9:00am where respective students handled their booths and overall, the whole place was busy with people being screened, blood being donated, and the residents lining up in front of the dental truck for dental check-up. Thanks to the combined efforts of the students, the flow of all the stations were remarkably very smooth and well-handled. 
This was followed by the arrival of a few VIPS. These included the ketua kampung himself and several of his committee as well as Dean, School of Medicine, IMU, YBhg Dato’ Kew Siang Tong, and Prof Ong Kok Hai. Upon their arrival, an opening ceremony was held, with speeches given respectively by Prof Ong, introducing the main aim of IMU Cares Project and its benefits to the community. A welcoming speech was also given by the Ketua Kampung and with that the event was officially declared open. This was followed by more health screening and talks given by the students to promote health awareness. 
Overall, the event went well. Post event evaluation was made, it was found by the data analysis team that for health screening, total number of participants was 93 participants, 90 adults, 3 children. 89 adults took their blood pressure and out of these, 25 were hypertensive, 24 pre-hypertensive and 40 participants had normal blood pressure. 86 adults had their random blood sugar taken, in which 2 were diabetic, 29 had impaired glucose levels and 55 were normal. 23 adults took total cholesterol level in which 5 partipants had high cholesterol levels, 6 were at borderline and 12 were normal. Body mass index calculation was also done for 88 adults in which 52 are obese, 11 are overweight and 17 were normal , whereas 8 of these participants were underweight. From these, we can conclude that the residents of Kampung Yap Tau Sah were overweight with a few medical conditions gone undetected. Therefore, from these, referrals were made to Klinik Kesihatan with regards to their medical condition and also for smoking cessation. 
As for the blood donation drives, organ pledge stations and dental check-up station, 35 participants donated blood, 11 pledged their organs and 32 people went for dental health check-up. In view of these, the feedback given by the hospital staff was that there was still not enough awareness on the importance of organ donation in the community. With this event in the village, there should now be greater awareness among the community on the importance of donating organs and its impact in helping others. With the success of this event, the IMU students, staff and faculty would like to recognise and give thanks to the following sponsors: Yayasan Rotary Kluang, Paradigm Systems Berhad, Pharmaniaga, MedaPharma, HupSeng, Dr Neo Chee Beng, Orthopaedic and Traumatology Specialist, KPJ Kluang Utama Specialist Hospital and Dr Tan Chin Heok, Consultant General Surgeon, KPJ Kluang Utama Specialist Hospital who willingly contributed to make this event a smooth successful one. Photo credits: JieCong’s Photography
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