Vincentians are being urged to join a texting campaign, designed to raise awareness of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD).{{more}}

In an effort to show support for Caribbean leaders, ahead of the September 19-20, 2011 United Nations Conference on NCDs, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, to obtain positive outcomes at the event, is spearheading a texting drive.

The initiative, known as the ‘Get the Message Campaign’ has set a goal of collecting one million text messages of support for Caribbean leaders attending the United Nations summit, with the hopes of obtaining positive outcomes on their behalf.

A target of 12,500 texts has been set for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with 3,129 having already been received by the coalition up to the morning of Monday, August 15.

Up to that same time, 230,000 had been received Caribbean wide.

Persons wishing to join the campaign are asked to use their cellular phones to text the word YES to short code 4325 if they are Digicel subscribers, or 4357 if they are LIME subscribers.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition is a civil society alliance organized to combat chronic NCDs.

The alliance was established following a Caribbean civil society-led conference on chronic diseases in 2008.(JJ)