400+ screened in a single day in Abira, Ghana

People started lining up at 7:00 AM. We planned to close at 2:30 PM — the team kept going until 5:00 PM so no one was turned away.

👥 400+ screened 📅 July 17, 2026 📍 Abira Chiefs' Palace

📍 Abira, near Kumasi · Ashanti Region, Ghana · View larger map

By the numbers

400+

community members screened, free of charge

7:00 AM

when the first people began lining up

8 hrs

of continuous screening (9 AM – 5 PM)

people turned away — the team screened until everyone was seen

cities sent volunteer doctors: Kumasi & Accra

10+

free services, from BP and diabetes to eye and ENT

The day

A houseful, from sunrise to sundown

Abira, Ashanti Region, Ghana — July 17, 2026. In a single day at the Abira Chiefs' Palace, more than 400 community members received free medical screening through our partnership with St. Joseph Catholic Hospital, Abira (Catholic Health Service Trust – Ghana).

The doors were set to open at 9:00 AM. By 7:00 AM, people were already queuing — elders, families, and children filling the canopies on the red-dirt square. The exercise was scheduled to close at 2:30 PM. It ran until 5:00 PM, because the team refused to turn anyone away.

Volunteer physicians travelled from Kumasi and Accra to serve alongside the hospital's nurses and staff — a level of turnout, both from patients and from clinicians, that made the day a genuine success.

Provided free of charge

Blood pressure (hypertension) and blood sugar (diabetes) screening
Breast screening and breast cancer awareness
Hernia, ENT, and eye screening
General medical consultations, and nutrition & lifestyle counselling
Mental health screening and counselling
Laboratory services, with free follow-up scans for referred patients

Hundreds of Abira community members seated under canopies waiting for free health screening

The turnout at the Abira Chiefs' Palace — the community filled the canopies from early morning.

Leadership

What Nathan did on the day

FutureBright founder Nathan Francis addressing the community at the Abira screening, beneath the partnership banner

This wasn't a visit. Nathan Francis, who founded and runs FutureBright, helped bring the exercise about — and then spent the day working it.

Opened the gathering. He addressed the assembled community from the podium, beneath the banner reading “St. Joseph Catholic Hospital Abira, in collaboration with The FutureBright.”
Triaged patients. He worked alongside the clinical team through the day, triaging patients as they arrived and moving them to the right screening station.
Brought the resources. FutureBright, the nonprofit he founded, underwrote the exercise so that every service — consultation, lab work, scans — was free to the community.
Rallied the turnout. Answering the hospital's outreach letter, FutureBright helped carry word to churches, schools, and community institutions across Abira.

The measure of it is simple: 400+ people seen, and a screening that ran two and a half hours past its planned close because nobody was sent home.

Nathan Francis fitting a blood-pressure cuff on a patient at the Abira screening — Triaging a patient at the screening

Nathan Francis addressing the community on the microphone — Addressing the gathering

Nathan Francis speaking to the community — Rallying the community

Community partnership

Hosted by the Abira Traditional Council

The FutureBright team, hospital sisters, and volunteers with the chief of Abira in traditional kente robes

The screening was held at the Abira Chiefs' Palace, hosted by the traditional leadership — the reason the whole community turned out rather than a handful of neighbours.

The exercise was hosted under the traditional leadership of Nana Bona Kesse Tare II, the Chief of Abira, whose presence brought the whole community out. On the clinical side it was led by the hospital's Medical Director, Dr. Yorke Gaddiel Obo Mensah, and Nurse Manager Ms. Cecilia Owusu, under the supervision of Administrator Sr. Maria Mathew CHF.

Our thanks to Sr. Maria and the entire St. Joseph Catholic Hospital team, to Nana Bona Kesse Tare II and the Abira Traditional Council for opening the Chiefs' Palace, to the volunteer doctors from Kumasi and Accra, and to every donor who made the day possible.

In our partner's words

“A resounding success”

After the event, St. Joseph Catholic Hospital issued its own statement. The words are theirs, not ours:

“A massive, free community health outreach… providing vital, multi-disciplinary care to hundreds of families across Abira and its neighbouring towns.”

“A powerful day of community unity, expert medical care, and lives impacted.”

“The event received a major boost from our international partners, The FutureBright Org — underscoring a shared global commitment to making high-quality, specialized healthcare accessible to vulnerable populations.”
— St. Joseph Catholic Hospital, Abira · Catholic Health Service Trust of Ghana