Sunday Okobi
A non-profit organisation, Lluvia Health, has provided interventions to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of Nigerians against COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on healthcare workers, women, and children.
These interventions are in the form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and food items for families with the aim of building resilient communities in Nigeria.
While highlighting the significance of the gesture yesterday, the Director/Founder of Lluvia Health, Dr. Amenze Eguavoen, said: ‘In Nigeria where the pandemic is escalating, major gaps exist in the response capacity especially in the shortage of PPEs for healthcare workers as well as the socio-economic crisis draining resources of families.
Not only do these shortages of PPEs impact the quality of treatment and care available, but it makes healthcare workers prone to the coronavirus infection which puts their friends and families at risk and further increases the spread of the virus.
“As the pandemic persists, it is vital that the lives of healthcare workers are protected. To help, we are providing PPE sets consisting of N95s, surgical gowns, face shields, gloves, and sanitizers to healthcare workers in government-owned facilities across the different tiers of health services. So far, we have donated to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos state University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across Lagos State.
Also, to protect families from the financial hardships caused by the pandemic, the healthcare organisation said it collaborated with the Lagos State Resilience Office (LASRO) to provide food relief to over 400 people-mostly women and children.
‘To build a resilient community that can overcome challenges posed by the pandemic, we need to make sure that PPEs are readily available to all healthcare workers as well as food for various families. We implore everyone to join us in protecting our communities by donating and assisting with the COVID-19 relief drive so that we can reach more healthcare workers. Keeping our front liners safe to carry out their duties during this pandemic is extremely important,” Eguavoen told journalists.
She added that healthcare workers remain at the frontline supporting and bolstering efforts to combat and curtail the impact of the virus, “however, this puts healthcare workers at a heightened risk of hazards such as long working hours, psychological distress, fatigue, occupational burnout, and infections with COVID-19.
“The drive to reduce the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on many households; limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, and protect the frontline health care workers, is what is driving our organisation to donate these PPEs and other items to ameliorate the effect of the COVID-19.
While receiving the Iluvia Health team, the Director of Clinical Services and Training, Lagos State, Dr. Mustafa Ibrahim, expressed deep gratitude to Eguavoen and her team.
He likened the frontline health workers on the COVID 19 pandemic as soldiers who are in a battle that just has to be won, “and we have been moving gallantly by trudging on the best way we can.”
He pointed out that the donations of PPEs to the hospital from the public do not go unappreciated, as he encouraged well-meaning Nigerians to do more as “no item given to us is too small.”
