Adesewa Adebunmi
No fewer than 1000 residents of the Oke-Are area of Oyo State on Monday benefited from the free insurance scheme of the George Aid Foundation of Nigeria.
The foundation is in partnership with the Rotary Club of Ibadan Metro.
Speaking at the medical outreach organised for residents of Oke-Are, which was held at Oke-Are Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC), Ibadan, the founder of the George Aid Foundation, Mr Ken George, said the essence of the programme is to cater for residents of Ibadan with annual medical outreach and monthly food distribution to 100 families.
The participants also got free dental services, a medical checkup, free eyeglasses, and free drugs, among others.
George said the foundation will enrol no fewer than 1,000 Ibadan residents in the Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme.
According to him, the beneficiaries, who are mostly indigenes, will be registered under the health insurance scheme at the cost of N130,000 per annum per person.
He said, “I grew up in Ibadan, and my wife and her family are from Aperin. About five to six years ago, we started this initiative that has now transformed into a yearly medical mission and monthly outreach.
“We will work with the Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme so that after we are long gone, the people can continue to access healthcare.
“The medical outreach will cater for sight, dental issues, blood pressure, and so on, while alternative care will also be available,” he said.
“We have a food bank where we give out food to 100 families in Ibadan. Our goal is to expand this, and we want to try and get the government to develop the PHC, and we want to use our programme to help the government update the PHC in different neighbourhoods in the city.”
The head of the medical team, Dr Musbau Kasumu, urged Nigerians to be wary of eating junk food because of its grave health implications.
According to him, lots of Nigerians have health challenges, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cholesterol, which are mostly unknown to them.
“We are encouraging people to check their blood pressure because if you don’t check it and it is too high, it will result in kidney problems.
“A lot of people are having kidney issues in Nigeria right now, and some of them can easily be prevented. The easiest thing is to check your blood pressure every day if you can afford it. I mean, most of the health centres run free blood pressure tests.
“I see more patients checking their sugar level, which is okay, but it is very important to check their blood pressure because it is easier to do.”
In his remarks, the President of Rotary Club Ibadan Jericho Metro, Mr Afolabi Salisu, noted that Nigerians lacked proper medical check-ups, thus making it necessary to take them.
He said that Rotary, in line with its mandate, decided to join the partnership in order to offer solutions to some of the health challenges facing Nigerians.
“Aside from food, we need to do proper checks on our bodies regularly, and that is why we laud our partners for this gesture to offer solutions to the medically challenged.”
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