Ferdinand Ekechukwu
BEE Enterprises Limited in collaboration with Goal Foundation recently organised a medical outreach at Ibulesoro Community in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The outreach service, which was a social investment initiative of the two organisations, was partnered by the Ondo State Agency for the Control of Aids, the Ondo State Nurses Forum, and endorsed by the Ondo State Ministry of Health with support from the Hospital Services and Public Health Departments.
Other support organisations and partners in the programme include Nigeria Medical Association, Enactus Futa Team, Irobi Maternal Initiative, Orange Dental Foundation, Smart360media, Accent Entrepreneural Dev., Agrokonnect, Accent, Hadassah School, Geniusmind Consult, Creatv Colony, CNI, Hope Institute, Reformation Movement, Bukola Areo and Medical CDS NYSC, as well as 54 volunteers who were on-ground for the social service reform activity.
The team was received in the community by the youth and women leader who secured the community Town Hall venue for the crew.
The social enterprise had the President and State Chairman of the Ondo State Nurses Forum, Mrs. Olusola Akinye deliver a lecture on personal hygiene.
She maintained that an individual with good hygiene practices is agreed to be free from diseases to a certain extent.
Akinye’s viewpoint was taken from that of parents and children to address the roles of both in enforcing personal hygiene.
“No part of the human body was to be left out,” said Dr. Akinsiku Oluwanimbe, a representative from Orange Dental Foundation as he further spoke on oral hygiene and teeth management.
He taught participants the essence of caring for the teeth, in comparison with the management of their money.
According to him, there’s the necessity to brush the teeth often, at least once daily, in order to get rid of dirt’s; food leftovers in the oral cavity.
Same for the Ondo State Agency for the Control of Aids, led by a representative who lectured on the importance of knowledge in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS.
The lecturer focused on the need for everyone to regularly verify their HIV/AIDS status while stressing the significance of early detection as the most appropriate remedy for the virus inflicted body system.
The many ways through which the virus can be transmitted were also discussed and what the help-love, rather than stigmatisation of people living with aids could achieve.
In response to the lectures of the Ondo State Agency for the Control of Aids, the team screened 36 adults who got to know their status.
Prior the commencement of the medical exercise, the NYSC Medical Team spoke to the group as a final effort was made to drive home the lessons of the lectures and talks, which formed one of the highpoints of the humanitarian exercise.
The opening address by the co-organiser and CEO of BEE Enterprises clarified the purpose of the training alongside the stress-free processes it offers to the beneficiaries.
He went further to appreciate the entire group for the time sacrificed for human and societal betterment.
The outreach was effective in the actualisation of its ascribed goal and objective of reaching out to the inhabitants of the community through medical knowledge, examination, counseling, and prescription.
No fewer than 218 children were attended to in the community and were tested and counseled on their health, giving refreshment and writing materials.
It was observed that resulting from the relative closeness of the community to the state capital, Akure, one would have assumed that the standard of living in the community is impressive.
However, about 87 per cent of the inhabitants were found to be living below the expected standard of life living. This was evident in the high rate of detected malnutrition in numerous forms, but notable is Kwashiorkor in children.
The poverty level seems to have prevented some from having toilets in their homes, why those available are pit latrines which bear marks of dilapidation.
The common man’s toilet, as observed by the medical team, is the bushes around their homes. This very act explains the diagnosed toilet diseases; cholera, dysentery among others.
Very heart rending was the story of a young woman, perhaps in her early forties, whose late husband had left her with five children.
She had to cultivate her husband’s farm to feed her children. She was lean and one could easily notice her nutritional deficiency in her physical appearance.
Sadly, the medical team discovered she was running high blood pressure and needed to be attended to immediately.
Nutrition is health. When people talk of balanced diet, it is good to remember those in communities such as this who hardly have two meals in a day.
Even the ones eaten are sometimes not properly prepared in a healthy environment. Definitely, if nothing is done in the earliest of time possible, various health issues will further emerge.
