Over 3,500 residents of the Galuwyi community in Bwari area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have benefitted from the free health care outreach organised by the Rotary Club of Maitama, Abuja in the community.
The president of the Rotary Club of Maitama, Rotarian Yusuf Alli explained that outreach was organised to mark this year’s Rotary Family Health Day, saying that over 3, 500 people in the community were offered free health outreach, which included tests and treatments of all ailments.
He explained that the Rotary Family Health Day is part of bonding with their adopted community and that every Rotary Club has an adopted community because their policy is ‘Each one, bring one, safe one; each one brings one, care for one.’
“Presently, we have over 3500 people who were given free health services, and we achieved some purposes, and we raised awareness for our adopted community on their health status. We catered to their basic health challenges, and from there, we will know the disease is prevalent in the community.
“Also, we will be able to know whether they are prone to epidemics. With this, we will be able to refer them to appropriate health authorities, or to a secondary, which is the general hospital or to a referral hospital,’ he said.
Also, United States-based Rotarian, Ms. Susan Paget, explained that the Rotary Club International has carried out over 11 million healthcare outreaches in 11 countries in Africa and that no fewer than 2.6m Africans have benefited from the humanitarian services of the club across the 11 African countries.
Paget who made this known while speaking with Journalists at the sideline of the medical outreach, said the outreach was aimed at taking prevention and health care to the communities that do not have access to health care.
The US-based Rotarian, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rotary Family Health and Aids Prevention (RFHA), which is based in Georgia, US, said: “What Rotary has done today is executed on Rotary Family Health Care Programme, and the program runs through what is called ‘Rotary Action Group, and I am the CEO.
“This program takes free prevention and health care services to communities that do not have access to health care. We operate in 11 countries throughout, and as of today, we have an excess of 2.6million beneficiaries with over 11 million health services. That is our program, and Nigeria is one of our flagship programs,’’ she said.
The National Coordinator of RFHA in Nigeria, Rotarian Bola Oyebade, said the medical outreach was carried out in the community to bridge the gap in health service by the residents of the community, adding that the program, said the outreach was carried out in 125 sites in Nigeria to free health care to the less privileged in the society.
