Day: April 9, 2023

The International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education (ICICE), a custodian of Al-Noor Mosque, Wuse II, Abuja, on Sunday provided free medical treatment to 400 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Deidei and Gwagwalada Area Councils of the FCT.

The centre’s Director-General, Dr Kabir Kabo-Usman, while addressing newsmen at the venue of the medical treatment in Zuba, Abuja, said the exercise was aimed at mitigating the health challenges of the PWDs in the nation’s capital.

“When I first visited the community and saw the situation of the persons with disabilities I broke in tears.”

He said part of the mandate of the centre, as a charitable organization, was to help with poverty alleviation, support community development and social welfare.

” And being part of our mandate, that is why we are here today at Deidei and Gwagwalada Area Council very close to Zuba, to try and give relevant medical attention to the persons with disabilities to challenge some of the medical issues that they are having.

” And I am sure you can see what you can see around, these are all people with special needs, persons with disabilities who are very vulnerable in the society.

” They are ignored, they are not well targeted and we need to make sure that we support them so that they can be healthy and do something for themselves.”

The D-G revealed that the free medical treatment was being conducted by four volunteer doctors, three nurses, three pharmacists and 20 volunteers, supporting to make the outreach successful.

” Our target is about 400 but we are here to actually support everyone that needs support in terms of medical predicament.

” We are also going to extend this medical outreach to other parts of the FCT and we will encourage the Area Councils authority to take this initiative further by equipping their primary healthcare centres”

He called on other charity organisations and wealthy individuals to support the vulnerable groups in the society, especially in addressing their health needs.

” When you see what is really happening in this community, believe me sincerely, you will run into tears.

“When I came into this place I ran into tears, and I asked myself a question – was my father in this situation? The answer was no.

” Was my mother in this situation? The answer was no. Was my wife in this situation? The answer was no. Was I in this situation? The answer is actually no.

” So it is good for the people to come around to support the local community so that going forward we can have peace and tranquility in our communities.”

Also, the centre’s Director, Community Development and Social Welfare, Amina Abdullahi, said the organisation had a database of persons with disabilities in all communities across the six area councils of the FCT.

Represented by Alhaji Garba Sani, Director, External Relations, Fundraising and Investment of the centre, Mrs Abdullahi, assured that the centre would continue to extend medical assistance to the vulnerable communities in the FCT.

She said the disabilities communities needed lots of support not only medically but in all facets of human endeavour.

” And unfortunately not all people and philanthropists recognise that and so our purpose and target is actually to identify the different communities of persons with disabilities and reach them at their settlements and provide services to them.”

The Head of Medical Team of the ICICE, Dr Amina Kumaliya, disclosed that most of the ailments observed in most patients were hypertension, peptic ulcer, malaria, diarrhea and rinitis in children.

” And then a little bit of diabetes. These are the ailments we diagnosed; we have ordered for their investigation and drugs are being dispensed for the patients.

Responding, the Chairman, People With Disabilities, Gwagwalada Area Council, Hassan Abdullahi, thanked the centre for the free medical treatment which would go a long way to enhance the living conditions of the beneficiaries.

Also, Malam Aminu Yelwa, Financial Secretary, Nasara Physically Challenged Centre, Deidei, appealed to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to support their members who learned mechanic and shoe making with working tools.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Teen Ambassador Foundation (TAF), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), on Sunday conducted a medical outreach in Luvu Community in Nasarawa State.

This is in celebration of the Christians and Muslims Easter and Ramadan festivities across the globe.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that scores of residents of the community were attended to by the foundation.

NAN reports that medical doctors treated and screened patients for different ailments such as diabetes, hepatitis, High Blood Pressure, Human Immuno Virus (HIV) among others.

Dr Samuel Munza, the Medical Coordinator for the foundation, said the vision of TAF was to access the society with special focus on teenagers in a bid to bring change.

Munza however said that the foundation does not discriminate or charge for consultation to test patients.

He added that it also helped in vaccination and offered screening of diabetes, hepatitis, peptic ulcers among others

He said that though the foundation does not have the capacity to do everything but it is doing the best it could to help those who are suffering from ailments.

According to him, we have a vision to reach out to other states. We have visited Niger, Kaduna states and FCT.

“We have visited Luvu community before, and we treated about 430 cases.

“We did not even capture children the first time but now we are doing that. We are not going to stop attending to people until we achieve our aim.”

Chief Salasi Ali, the Adogo of Luvu Community, commended the foundation, adding that “we appreciate this effort to the community and the foundation has been the only one doing this in our community.”

He said a lot of people in the community have received medical attention by the foundation, saying, “If I have to estimate, the people in this community we are more than 20,000.”

He said, in term of social amenities, the community was able to get a government hospital through some people who initially built the hospital but was later taken over by the government.

He said the road in the community was in a bad shape but added that the incumbent Governor of the state, Sule Abdullahi, had put up effort to fix it.

Mr Paul Adiwu, founder, TAF, said it was the second time the NGO would be visiting the community, adding that treatment this time was restricted to some ailments.

“This is in the spirit of Easter and Ramadan, looking at this place it is not limited to a particular class, everybody is here. We made provision for a thousand people this time because we were overwhelmed the first time.

“I lived in this community for nine years before I left and I think there is no better place to hold the outreach than here.

“We have done medical outreaches in different communities and we are now going into education.”

He said the foundation had procured a Computer Training Centre and in few days it would be launched.

Some beneficiaries of the outreach include an 80 year old retired soldier suffering from cataracts, a village chief, children and scores of women.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria