National Association of Seadogs (NAS) Pyrates Confraternity in Kaduna State has donated free drugs and other medical essentials to hospitals in Kaduna State in its quest to assist pregnant women and children to reduce child and maternal mortality.
General Hospital Kawo in Kaduna North local government area and the Dr Gwamna Awan General Hospital in Kakuri, Kaduna South local government area of the state are the hospitals that benefitted.
President of the association Fotula Deck, in an interview with newsmen on their mission shortly after visiting the benefiting hospitals said they were doing one of their humanitarian health services by caring for the pregnant women; maternal and child.
He said, “We come today to share some medical essentials and drugs to help reduce issues affecting a lot of pregnant women in our community. Some of them don’t have money to buy some of the essentials. After thorough investigation by some of our members, three of them Nonso, Femi and Peter, they reported back to me and we took it up to see how we can also assist in our little way by providing them with their basic maternity essentials and drugs. Also, for the child, their basic drugs and maternity after they are given birth, to sustain them for a while,” he said.
He said the association was also into quality education, gender equality, good governance, and accountability.
Deck said “our association has a medical team headed by a consultant. The Association is ready to work with the ministry of health on ways to improve our health system to a basic point that can accommodate the lesser people in our community on their basic essentials.
“By the time this is done, some of our members in other states would make sure that those things are implemented. We would monitor it to make sure that the essentials get to the end users.We are a non-governmental organisation, we’re not interested in government’s bureaucracy, we would make sure it gets to the roots of the society, that is our intervention.”
Dr. Okpara who spoke at length to the benefitting patients and medical staff of Kawo General Hospital, said “we do not belong to any political party, we don’t discriminate, we don’t preach any religion. All we do is service to humanity, making life habitable for any of us, irrespective of race, colour, and your background.
He said: “On earth, we are all one. In our logo you could see a cross bone star, what does that mean? If you die you turn to bone, in a few days in a few months you turn into bones. What counts after is what you have done for humanity. Have you been able to be of service to your neighbours so that when they are sick you are there? Have you been a mother to other children, not only yours? Have you been able to be a father to other children despite not being your children? So these are some of the things that make us go across our religion and our borders. Every person, every race is important.”
“We have been existing for over 70 years. We have over 70 branches in the world. We are highly recognised globally and nationally. We come into situations where things are not right. We show an exemplary life. We give the life that other people could see and say the world could be a better place. We believe in oneness and a united nation.
“So as part of one of our services to humanity is good health. We intend to from our little meagre resources, we brought all these (drugs etc). We are not a money-making venture. We are not using this to attract funds from any international community in the world. All these were gotten from ourselves, from our meagre resources. All members of the association are professionals. We have engineers, we have lawyers, we have bankers, we have every profession, and we are all doing well.
“From our professions we decided to drop a little token to help humanity and to help the community where we live. This association has been for over 70 years, you can Google and see what we have done across the board.
“Before the year ends, we would come with some of our expertise, we would come with some of our medical doctors, our pharmacists and do a broader medical outreach that could run into treating over 1000 patients if they are available on our own cost, not on your own cost.
“We want this hospital to be habitable to the in patients, to the out patients and to the medical personnel. If the medical personnel are not having the right atmosphere to work, they won’t treat you well. When you come to the hospital that is not habitable, you won’t get well. So, we would factor in all these things. Believe me, we are going to implement what we have said.”
Dr Emmanuel Odede, who represented the medical director of Kawo General Hospital; Dr. Safiya Dangaji expressed delight over the donations and assured the Pyrates of judicious use.
”We are so happy this morning having special people in our midst ,they are from the National Association of Seadogs, a non-governmental organisation, they have decided to come and be of assistance to not just the hospital staff but to the mothers and children in the hospital. They have brought many goodies as can be seen physically here. There are drugs, nets, and other medical instruments that could be used for patients. So, they brought it for the patients and would be given to those that require it.
“This is not the only thing they doubt for us. They have also decided to build a toilet for us. But we must keep the toilet clean so that it would last for us,” he said.
At the Dr Gwamna Awan General Hospital Kakuri in Kaduna State, the medical director, Dr Gabriel Brown, said the donation by the association was commendable and would go a long way to complement the government’s efforts.
He said the visit is quite commendable because government is trying to provide health services to the community, but of course, adding that government cannot carry the whole responsibility.
“Today they came with a lot of drugs, they came with infusions, they came with bed nets, they came with so many items. Like we said, we appreciate their visit, and we pledge that whatever they’re giving to this facility would get to the end user and would be used judiciously,” the medical officer said.
On whether the hospital has other needs, he said power supply to the hospital from KEDCO was not regular, and theirs was a hospital where services were expected to be provided 24 hours.
”We have generators and all that, but we would appreciate it if we go the green ways. That is to provide Solar to supplement whatever we are getting from Kaduna Electric. That becomes important. When you get the power, you can provide an effective water supply and the rest of them in the hospital,” he said.
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