NAN-HG-1
Outreach
Omu-Aran (Kwara), Sept. 20, 2016 (NAN) The Aro Bamgbose Biannual Medical Outreach, an NGO, says it has offered free treatment to no fewer than 6,000 patients for different ailments in Omu-Aran, Kwara, in three years.
Dr Musa Bello, the Coordinator of the Outreach, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Omu-Aran on Tuesday on the sidelines of a 2-day biannual free medical outreach of the group.
Bello expressed delight at the large turnout of beneficiaries.
He said that the free health care services being rendered by the outreach had attracted patients from across the three wards of Omu-Aran community and other neighbouring towns in Irepodun Local Government Area of the state.
The coordinator said the programme included health sensitisation and education counseling on breast cancer, Lassa fever and other related ailments aimed at safeguarding the health of the people.
Bello added that most of the beneficiaries received free medical tests, diagnosis and drugs for ailments such as malaria, typhoid, hypertension and diabetes.
According to him, the organisation is geared toward bringing health care delivery closer to the people, especially those at the grassroots.
“The programme is also intended to compliment the services of the various basic and primary health care centres across the communities.
“It is our belief that such intervention will assist the people to know their health status and take precautionary measures to avert escalating bad health conditions,” he said.
Bello stressed the need to cater for the medical challenges of the people so that they could channel their resources to other areas to impact on their immediate and extended families.
He praised the effort of the community leaders, market and transport unions, and religious leaders for making the biannual medical outreach a success.
Chief Adekunle Oyinloye, the Chairman of the occasion and sole financier of the outreach, expressed happiness that the NGO had lived up to the expectation of its target population.
“I feel that taking care of the health needs of the people is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders, private participation inclusive.
“People nowadays are scared of seeking medical attention in both public and private health institutions, even for ailments that cost less than N1, 000.
“It is true that people have to enjoy the dividends of democracy they have laboured for, but more importantly, they should be in the best form of health to have comfortable living,” Oyinloye said. (NAN)
ISHO/DUA/AMY
Edited by Dada Ahmed and Abdullahi Yusuf
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