WHEN Mervyn Fernando, director of Indigenous Medical Supplies, lost his father to a heart attack, his whole world changed. His father had lived with diabetes for years, but no one expected when he went to work that day, he would lose his life.
“I realised then how little my family knew about health, how little we were educated in health issues, chronic health problems and other things,” said Mr Fernando.
This moment set Mr Fernando on a journey to understand and address disparities between health outcomes for minority groups, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
In the company’s relatively short history, Indigenous Medical Supplies (IMS) has a rich track record of donating personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to local charity organisations, like FoodShare in 2021, and rural and remote communities who cannot access Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) or PPE.
Leading up to the launch of their new product, RAT Care Packs, special packs designed for tourists and the transport industry, IMS are creating educational materials using content that appeals to minority groups.
“There’s always a variable when testing yourself that it has been done wrong and gives inaccurate results. These videos can help non-English speakers or people from diverse backgrounds to test themselves correctly and confidently.”
IMS have engaged local Samoan, Korean and Aboriginal families to create videos that explain how to accurately test yourself and your children. The videos will have subtitles available in various languages and videos will also explain correct disposal of self-testing kits.
RAT Travel Packs and the culturally sensitive content will become available from the new website – buyrapidtestkits.com.au – later this month, having been delayed by transport and logistic constraints, a key industry that these kits hope to assist, while making testing accurate and available for all people.
