By; BAYO AKAMO Ibadan
Over 1,000 residents of Aremo, Ode-Aje and its environ in Ibadan North East local government area of Oyo State on Thursday benefitted from the free health service sponsored by Mafoya Oluwa Mbe Pelumi’ Foundation.
The free health service which included free Covid-19 test, Blood sugar level, HIV, eye test and free glasses and others was anchored by the Foundation in conjunction with Doctors from University Teaching Hospital (UCH), Ibadan
According to the Coordinator of ‘Mafoya Oluwa Mbe Pelumi’ Foundation, Mr Olusegun Agboola, the free health service is to run till Sunday to afford more residents in the areas to benefit from the health care service.
Mr Agboola stated that the foundation initially resolved to accommodate about 1000 residents but that with the turn out of about a thousand on Thursday alone, the beneficiaries may run into three thousands.
” Basically, one of the areas of our foundation is health. We are introducing health talk, it is health education, when people know what is not good for them, they can stop it. Aside health talk, as you can see, we are giving free heath care service to our people at community level. We are doing this in conjunction with doctors from UCH and medical equipment”, he said .
Mr Agboola added, ” we are sensitising the people. We are taking care of more than a thousand people at two locations. Initially we are thinking of 500 each for the locations. The locations are here in Aremo and Oke Ofa Atipe, but we are already taking care of no fewer than a thousand here”.
The Coordinator of Mafoya Oluwa Mbe Pelumi’ Foundation while lamenting the health sector situation in Nigeria declared that the foundation took upon itself to care for the people considering the fact that government alone cannot do everything.
According to him “The Foundation took it upon itself to provide free heath care service to some communities in Ibadan metropolis because health is wealth.
“It is regrettable that our Doctors are currently on strike but interestingly, some of these doctors are members of the NGOs that are providing free service for the people. Because they know the oath they took, that first and foremost to save lives. When there are strike, it is always around certain demands. But, I know that it is between them and the government.”
Speaking further, Mr Agboola said, it means, basically the second location may also witness like a thousand, saying, ” the provider are here with basic medical equipment and drugs. They are here with basic equipment to do some tests on hypertension, COVID-19, blood sugar level, eye test and provision of recommended classes and other basic health services”.
