The Azeez Amida Foundation, a brainchild of best-selling Nigerian author and business executive Azeez Amida (Dr), has refurbished the primary healthcare clinic in Ilishan-Remo of Ikenne local government, Ogun State, to the delight of community members.
He said this latest intervention in excess of N5 million is part of the foundation’s goal to alleviate the problems of healthcare facilities in hard-to-reach communities across Nigeria.
“Due to a lack of maintenance, the Illishan health facility had deteriorated to the point where it had no burglary protector, stretchers or chairs for women and their children to sit during antenatal visits and other routine health checks. In addition, there was an inadequate supply of essential drugs and equipment. The perimeter fencing was also not up to standard, making the clinic susceptible to robbery attacks,” he said.
While speaking during the handover ceremony, Amida said the most significant investment one could make in life was not in the stock market, real estate or precious stones but in giving back to society.
Since its inception in early 2022, the Azeez Amida Foundation has impacted thousands of lives and invested human and capital resources in various social interventions across the country.
For example, it recently partnered with the support initiative of Nigerian artist Timi Dakolo to provide relief aid to 50,000 victims of floods in Bayelsa State.
Read also: 50% pension contributors may qualify for residential mortgage
Speaking further on the refurbished primary healthcare clinic in Ilishan-Remo, he said: “Our core mission is helping underprivileged children and their families in four key Sustainable Development Goals across Africa: To foster the goal of alleviating hunger and poverty, to play the role of ensuring sound health and well-being, to promote quality education and to ensure the availability of clean water and good sanitation”.
“The beauty of projects like this is that they address the fundamental needs Africans complain about,” he said. For example, we spend much time saying we have poor healthcare facilities. This community has only one maternity centre, which was in bad shape before we arrived. So, we aim to ensure that people in communities like Ilishan have the proper infrastructure to do basic things, and healthcare is an essential infrastructure.”
He was optimistic that the facility will now contribute immensely to providing reliable, sustainable and improved quality healthcare provision, especially regarding maternity and child care for communities experiencing poor healthcare service delivery.
The local government representative expressed profound appreciation to the Azeez Amida Foundation for aiding the people of Ilisan.
“We are grateful to them for helping us solve the issue of basic equipment. But, unfortunately, some became faulty and obsolete,” said Awoshipe Ademola Kazeem, Supervisory Councillor for Health, Ikenne Local Government.
“The Foundation has helped us today by providing new ones and assisting us so that the delivery of health services at our facility can be better. On behalf of the local government, I want to say a big thank you to the Azeez Amida Foundation. We really appreciate them,” Kazeem added.
Among other activities, the foundation also donated hundreds of textbooks and other educational materials, refurbished the school’s facilities and provided clean water to the pupils and teachers of St Paul African Church School in Ilogbo, Ado/Odo Ota LGA in Ogun State.
