Hope For African Children and Boys Champions, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), on Sunday offered free medical services to over 500 women and children at an Internally Displaced Persons camp in the Federal Capital Territory.
Miss Aisha Yahaya, the organiser of the outreach disclosed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Bama & Gwoza IDP camps Durumi in Abuja, venue of the programme, that it was aimed at assisting the less-privileged.
According to her, the organisation has the passion in providing free medical services to the less- privileged at IDP camps, especially now that the health workers are strike.
She added that the outreach, which engaged qualified doctors and other personnel would also sensitise the people against the abuse of traditional herbs to treat their ailments.
“The Nigerian doctors are on strike so the essence why we organised this outreach, most of the patients from government hospitals have been sent home.
“Many lives have been lost since when the doctors embarked on strike because they can’t afford medical expenses in private hospitals.
“We shouldn’t just relax and allow the government to do everything, I call on other organisations to assist the less-privileged in the society for the development of the country,” she said.
She, however, called on the beneficiaries to always take their health issues serious by always going for regular medical check-ups and treatments.
Miss Dorothy Alumona, co-organiser of the outreach said the exercise included malaria tests and treatments, eye tests, checking of blood pressure, vital signs and others.
She said the organisation would continue to render free medical services, especially to people at the rural areas as long as they had the means to do so.
“We are trying to do more of preventive medicine here as the saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure’, and you can see the medical personnel are checking their blood pressures, vital signs and others.
“We know what it takes to pay for medical treatments in some families and I know what the people in the rural communities are facing especially at this hard time.
“Many people have died because they could not afford to pay for their treatments; that is why we took it upon ourselves to assist the rural communities,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Hadiza Musa, who could not hide her joy, expressed gratitude to the organisation for the kind gesture.
Mr Ibrahim Halilu, the coordinator of the IDP camp thanked the organisation for the free medical outreach and called on other healthcare service providers to do same.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria