Health is wealth. This age-long words of wisdom is the basis on which the Management of Springtime Development Foundation, a not-for-profit and nongovernmental body in Ede, Osun State, in collaboration with Grace For Impact, from Georgia, United States of America, embarked on a free healthcare outreach programme for citizens of Ede North Local Government Area and Ede South-East Local Council development Area, Sekona, between November 13 and 14, 2017, to avail them state of the art mobile medical facilities and drugs to take care of their various ailments.
The 2017 healthcare outreach of the organisation which had been known for philanthropic gestures over the years, took off with fanfare at the palace of the Timi of Ede land, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal, and the palace of Olu of Sekona, Oba Abdul-Waheed Adebowale in Ede South East LCDA as a massive crowd consisting of residents and people from neighbouring communities were beneficiaries of the outreach.
They were not disappointed, as the able team of Springtime Development Foundation led by the Vice Chairman, Mr. Banji Adesiyi & the Chief Executive Officer, Pastor Samuel Oyalabu and Pastor Dapo Oriola from Grace for Impact outfit gave a good account of themselves as the whole team complemented by some Adhoc staff from the National Youth Service Corp, worked tirelessly to meet the needs of the patients.
The 2017 edition of the medical outreach spanned through general health care services; cervical cancer screening, optical ailment rectification and supply of free glasses as well as drugs, dental service and minor surgeries.
In addition to those attended to at the palace, 125 and 250 patients were attended to at Sekona and Ede centres respectively on the first day while on the second day, people treated at the medical centres were 150 and 200 respectively making it a total of 725 beneficiaries.
There was passion visibly written on the faces of the beneficiaries, who saw the event as. God-sent, to avail them of super medical care with standard drugs. They were full of praises for the organizers, who thought it fit to bring the programme to the people at grassroots, particularly the low-income earners, who had lost hope of such standard treatment been extended to them.
They were particularly full of praises and appreciation to Dr. Deji Adeleke, the Chairman of Springtime Development Foundation.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Vice-Chairman of Springtime Development Foundation, Mr. Banji Adesiyi, assured the people that the exercise will continue to expand in leaps & bounds so as to accommodate more beneficiaries, adding that the gesture would be extended to other local government areas in Osun in due time without consideration for tribe, creed, religion or sex.
According to him, Springtime Development Foundation has been championing the cause of the less-privileged over the years without attracting public attention to itself and appealed to the beneficiaries of 2017 free Healthcare outreach by the Foundation to make judicious use of the drugs given to them.
The leader of the team from USA, Pastor Dapo Oriola, expressed his pride at being part of efforts to make life worth living for the people who could not afford the high cost of good health facilities through provision of free medical care to them, adding that the Grace For Impact organization is an assemblage of thorough-bred medical professionals from USA, who on their own free volition, chose to come down to Nigeria at their own expense to collaborate with the Springtime Development Foundation and help out in the provision of good health care delivery to the people.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Springtime Development Foundation, Pastor Samuel Olu Oyalabu emphasized that the foundation will always put priority on the plight of the less-privileged people in the society in order to fulfill the vision and mission of its founder, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, who he described as a silent philanthropist of no mean order.
It would be recalled, that the Springtime Development Foundation in June gave out 700 mattresses and pillows to each of Ilesa and Ile-Ife prisons to reduce the effect of sleeping on bare floor on the inmates health.
Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal and Oba Waheed Adebowale expressed their apprrciation to the organizations for finding it necessary to cater for the health needs of the citizens as it will go a long way to make them enjoy robust health.
Olumide Lawal writes from Ede
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