By John Silas
In the spirit of fellow-feeling, Rotary Club of Gbagada ably led by the Club’s President, Rotarian Olubunmi Oguntade in partnership with the Lagos State Government visited the General Hospital Gbagada, Lagos State, to celebrate Christmas with the in-patients of the hospital. The visit was in line with the annual visit of the club to the hospital.
Following the club’s visitation to the hospital drugs and other medical supplies were distributed to the patient’s to extend the hand of fellowship and love.
While going from one ward to another, it was a remarkable day as the Rotary Club of Gbagada donated the sum of (100,000) Naira to the mother of twin baby boys born on the morning of 25 December,2023, to support the hospital bill while others battling with different ailments received gifts items.
The Theme for year 2023 is tagged “HOPE”.
Rotarian Olubunmi Oguntade, President Rotary Club of Gbagada, 2023/2024 while speaking to the media expressed excitement that the club was able to put smile on those in pain. “I feel excited, I felt loved, I am happy we can put smiles on people’s faces, I saw a woman, she was crying when we visited her, she was emotional, and you see we have a representative of the Lagos State Governor, and by the time they were told that the representative of the governor is here, you could see them smile. Rotary is out to increase our joy not only in Rotary but actually in the world.”
She also spoke on the choice of the General Hospital, “Rotary Club of Gbagada actually adopted Gbagada General Hospital for our Annual Christmas Visit. I joined Rotary Club of Gbagada 1996/97 and this is the custom I met, so it is way back. Every 25th of December we come here, we present gifts, because December is known for disease prevention and treatment, so we normally come in with little gifts to give the in-patients. While others are in the church, some at home cooking and eating the patients are here lonely. So we come to bring joy to them, to tell them Rotary cares and we love them.”
On how much was budgeted for the event, she responded that it was difficult to quantify monetarily what they are doing. “In Rotary what we do is little kobo from each person, some donated tissues, some detergents, some monetise it. So you can’t quantify love, I can’t really tell you this is the exact amount because even the time you are using, you cannot quantify it. We have gifts for the children separate, we have gifts for the mothers and we have gifts also for the men, for those that just put to bed, we have gifts for them too.
“One of us donated some amount for the first baby of the day, the Christmas baby, fortunately by the time we were getting there we have two women put to bed so we had to merge the initial N25000, now a Rotarian, Past President Kirti Sudhanshu who newly joined me in Gbagada has now donated N50,000 for the new born baby, that means we have the some of N100,000 for the new born babies for the day,” she revealed.
Speaking on her Star project as a club President, Oguntade disclosed that the club under her has expanded the pediatric ward of the General Hospital. “We actually built the Pediatric Ward years back, and by the time we came here about 2 years ago we saw that we needed to improve on what we built, so a building of almost 20 years we know it needed some improvement, so we said okay, let’s do a little face-lift to it, but by the time we got there, you know, as Oliver Twist, we always ask for more, so they say we don’t want you to just renovate, we want you to give us some expansion. And so we had to do expansion in view of the latest in-thing, we created the children’s ward, the mothers’ waiting room, and we have the reflection room.
On her message to the general public she said, “This year is a year of hope, let’s create hope in the world, fortunately like I told people earlier, we are out to create hope not just within Rotary world but also outside the Rotary world, in your home, in your office, anywhere you are, show Hope, show people you love them, one naira will go a long way, support Rotary in any way you can, and trust me the sky will not be the limit.”
In his message to the patients, Bolaji Ayotunde Ogunkoya the Representative of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu wished the in-patients of Gbagada General Hospital and indeed patients in other hospitals a merry Christmas, he said, “Merry Christmas and happy New Year in advance, I want them to be happy, we know the hospital is not a five star hotel, they will leave this place hale, hearty and healthy for their various homes to be reunited with their families very very soon. We want to convey the mood of Christmas to them because ordinarily they wouldn’t want to be here in this hospital, so when we convey the mood of the Christmas to them, they would be happy, the healing would come faster and they would be able to come out faster, and that is the message from the governor of Lagos State.”
Dr Olusegun Babafemi Chief Executive Officer, General Hospital Gbagada, stated that the General Hospital Gbagada is actually celebrating with the patients in collaboration of Rotary Club Gbagada, “This is what we do, we are representing Mr. Governor, this is what Mr Governor does in all the 28 General hospitals in the state even including LASUTH, he celebrates with all the patients, so we are his representatives celebrating with the patients on his behalf and we are doing it in collaboration with Rotary Club of Gbagada and that has been a handshake that has been beneficial to both Gbagada General Hospital and Rotary Gbagada. We have been in this collaboration for quite some time, and we are still going ahead with this.”
He wished the patient quick recovery and stated that General Hospital Gbagada is known for quality. “I wish the patients quick recovery. What we do here is to give quality healthcare, and we want every patient that comes here to feel assured that we are going to do our utmost best to give them the best that is available anywhere in this country, and that is what we do here. We have the professionals. We are not just general hospital, we have found out that other general hospitals refer patients to us, and that is not just that, some tertiary hospitals, due to one reason or the other, also refer their patients to this place and we have the capacity to do that, that is why they refer to us, because we are your trusted partner for quality healthcare.”
Dr. Dende Shoga, member of Rotary Club of Gbagada, and also past District Governor of District 9110 said that the visit is something the club has been doing for 40 years of its existence. “Tt is a way of showing love to those who are not opportune to be on their feet, going about like all of us, we can make life sweeter for them by also spending sometimes with them, sharing the spirit of the moment with them; it is a season of love, sharing of gifts and everything that makes us happy.”
Kirti Sudhanshu, CEO, Kirti’s Kare Foundation, from the same club said ‘We are Rotarians, we are selfless “I am giving my time, even my foundation is there, but my time, my time is priceless, time is timeless, that is why we are humanitarians, I am here because of Rotary. We are here to serve society selflessly, and my message is be selfless. We celebrate life not death, we believe in life. Where there is hope there is dream.”
Carolyn Chukwura, also from Rotary Gbagada “What we are doing at the hospital is a selfless outing, Christmas people usually stick to themselves, some of them, but we chose to come out here to celebrate with people that are kind of trapped here because of one ailment or the other. So we want them to feel the spirit of Christmas, we are here as a team as you can hear the trumpet and sound, we want them to feel that all is not ended, so we came with band and also the warm wishes and fellowship with them, we are in here seeing the patients one after the other, so I feel it is a wonderful thing.”
