Douglas Blessing, Port Harcourt
Over 500 residents of three communities in Asari-Toru Local government Area, Rivers State, have benefited from a free medical outreach by the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), Pyrates Confraternity, in commemoration to the 63rd anniversary of the Nigeria independence.
The medical outreach which was held at Model Primary Health Centre Ido, witnessed presence of beneficiaries from Abalama and Buguma, headquarters of the LGA.
Speaking at the programme on Monday, Mr Kennedy Barango, Capoon of Olympus Marino Deck of NAS, Port Harcourt, said the outreach was in commemoration of the independence day.
Barango who explained that the programme has been on for the past five years, urged government at all levels to increase their attention on healthcare delivery in the rural communities.
He said: “Last year, we took the medical outreach to Isu-Etche, previous year we took it Joinkrama. And so we move from communities to communities under our jurisdiction. Of course Asari-Toru Local government area is under Olympus Marino Deck.
“We decided to come this way somehow because of the relationship we have with the collaborators. This year we are collaborating with a couple of bodies, including the Asari-Toru Local government council, Purple Eyes/Dental Clinic, St Patricks Hospital and Rotary Club Medical Towers.
“We made provisions for between 300 and 500 patients. We engaged the local government council to reach out to neighbouring communities like Buguma and Abalama”.
Barango further disclosed that the organisation in collaboration with other partners spent over N4million in ensuring success of the outreach.
“We spent about N4million on the outreach. But our collaborators also brought materials free of charge that we are not been able to place monetary figure on. But if we have to do that it will be averaging about N5million.
“We can see that the venue for this outreach is a primary health centre, but when you take a tour around it you will all see the inadequacies of the centre, ranging from the very basic power supply to other more serious issues.
“This outreach is not just a charity but an advocacy. It means knocking at the door of the government at different levels, to draw their attention on the need to rise up to be more conscious to the cries of the people. We are not just going to stop at this level of providing charitable materials or palliatives, we also go to the point of advocating, creating awareness to government.
Our advise should be that government should wake up, maybe for those who appear to have woken up, to increase the attention that they give to all the communities. We hope that our cries to them will get them to help”.
Dr George Ipalibo, Supervisor on Health, Asari-Toru LGA, commended the organisation for the intervention in the area.
Dr Ipalibo said: “Is a very welcome outreach knowing the challenges of health in the rural areas. Health is an expensive enterprise so to speak; the promotion of health, prevention of health disease, maintenance of good health, the cure of diseases, is all very expensive”.
One of the beneficiaries of the free medical outreach, Awongor Horsfall, expressed gratitude for the intervention. She said, “The outreach is very beneficial to us. We appreciate the Seadogs for this initiative and urge that they should continue in this. They attended to my baby too, gave us drugs and treated insecticide net, free of charge”.
