A group, National Association of Seadogs, (Pyrates Confraternity), Ebonyi State chapter has distributed drugs and clothes and carried out free medical outreach to inmates of the St. Vincent De Paul Old People’s and Destitute Home Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The group said that the special intervention programme is aimed at catering to the health needs of the inmates and helping to alleviate their suffering and other challenges currently confronting them.
The inmates, who are predominantly elderly, disabled and orphans, are faced with health, environmental and other challenges and have before now lived in abject poverty, abandonment and poor health condition before the intervention of the association.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP shortly after the outreach programme, the president of the association, Prince Chidi Aloh, said that the association’s medical intervention is to cater to many of the inmates whom the association observed to have some health conditions.
Prince Aloh stated that the association’s regular intervention has helped prolong the lifespan of many of the inmates, adding that the association has adopted the home since 2014.
“This is a home we adopted since 2014. Most of the facilities you see here was donated by us including the borehole and other facilities in the home. This is the 11th year we established our presence here,” he said.
The president of the association noted that in its commitment to ensuring that the health needs of the inmates are constantly addressed, the association established a mini sick bar and employed the services of a medical doctor and nurse to visit the home and run a regular check on them.
We established a sick bar and employed the services of a doctor and a nurse who come here weekly to do a random check on the inmates. We stocked the sick bar with drugs and as you can see, we brought in a new set of drugs for the inmates.
It is a thing of joy that since we established the sick bar, it has remained functional.
Prince Aloh noted that from the report by the doctors and nurses who ran checks on the inmates, it was observed that many of them were hypertensive and had constant headaches.
The caretaker of the home, Mr. John Lekpa, lamented that inmates of the home are faced with the challenge of hunger, adding that the health condition of some of the inmates is in bad shape.
He appealed to public-spirited individuals to assist the home by providing food and financial support, adding that all the door nets in the home have gone bad and need replacement.
He commended the association for its support and solicited the support of the state government, other groups, and spirited individuals to ensure the good condition of the home.
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