No fewer than 500 women and children have benefited from free medical outreach in the Guidna community in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The outreach was organised by Rotary clubs in District 9125, which comprises 12 Rotary clubs in Abuja and Silver Cross Hospital.
In her remarks, President of the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD, Rotarian Aisha Ali, said the outreach that falls under the club’s seven areas of focus was to make high-quality health care available to vulnerable mothers and children so they could live longer and grow stronger.
According to Rotarian Aisha, the interventions were done to expand access to quality care so mothers and children can have the same opportunities for a healthy future.
“An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation, all of which can be prevented,” she said.
Aisha also said the Rotary Club provides education, immunisations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics for communities.
“Women are taught how to prevent mother-to-infant HIV transmission, how to breastfeed, and how to protect themselves and their children from diseases,” she added.
On her part, Mrs. Lovina Okorn-Ntui, the District Chair, Maternal and Child Health Committee, District 9125, said that the women received mosquito nets, free scan services, deworming of children, eye checks, and distribution of eyeglasses, among others.
“The outreach is in response to one area of focus of Rotary International, which focuses on providing high-quality health care to vulnerable mothers and children.
“Owing to the economic situation in the country, the clubs decided to provide medical intervention to the less-privileged and vulnerable groups that could not afford regular healthcare checks.
“The essence of today’s programme is to fulfil the area of focus as it concerns maternal and child health, safe delivery for women, safe breastfeeding for women and their children, as well as healthy living for women and children.
“We will be enlightening them on safe delivery, issues surrounding safe breastfeeding, and its importance.
“We will be giving them treatment for preventable diseases such as malaria fever and other common diseases that affect women and children, among others.
“We decided to come here because this is an indigent community, and what Rotary preaches is to go to indigent communities to fill in the gap.
“There is no other health facility here aside from this one, so we are collaborating with the owner to provide the necessary health services to the women and children,” she said.
Dr. Patrick Ezie, the Chief Medical Director of Silver Cross Hospital, noted that the gesture was to assist the poor and needy in the community.
“We came together and decided that we need to flag off this kind of intervention for women in rural communities because we identify that a lot of these women are not able to get the type of care that they want for basic problems.
“We will be providing free medical care for them; the health education is already going on; we will scan the pregnant women free of charge; we will carry out testing on HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, malaria, and typhoid; and we will provide drugs for them.
“All these medical interventions are for us to be able to nip in the bud some medical conditions that might be very serious.
“We will screen the women for cervical and breast cancer; if we notice any issue, we will do our best to manage it or refer them to the appropriate level of care.
“So we want to use the little resources that we have to support these indigent communities,” he said.
Also, Mr Adesuwa Agbontaen, the President of the Rotary Club of Asokoro and Chief Executive Officer of the Eye Care Aid Foundation, noted that the medical intervention “is to give back to society and assist indigent communities with basic healthcare services.
“One of the things that we do in Rotary is carry out projects, as we have more than 44 clubs in Abuja and we are all doing one project or the other, which is carried out on a weekly and monthly basis,” he said.
Mrs Salamatu Musa, a beneficiary, appreciated the clubs and the hospital for organising medical outreach in their community.
“They taught us many things: how to breastfeed our babies when we give birth, how to take care of them properly, and how to be neat,” she said.
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