As part of aims to provide basic medical care services to severely underserved populations and communities across Nigeria and Africa, Health Empowerment Africa Initiative (HEAI), a non-governmental organisation in a two-day outreach, extended medical facilities to residents of Makoko community slum.
The outreach program, which took place on the 29th and 30th of January, 2021, saw the NGO provide services like antenatal care, diagnosis and treatment of basic medical issues, preventive health services, eye care, and screening for common chronic ailments like diabetes and hypertension, for free to about 200 members of the community.
Speaking on the need for the outreach, Joy Abakporo, founder of HEAI, explained that the mandate of the organisation was to improve the capacity of Africans to take full responsibility for their health through improving education, awareness, and literacy especially. “Hence, over time, we are creating different initiatives that focus on specific areas of the broader system that have an impact on the individual and population health.” she said.
Since founded in 2016, the organisation has continued to extend care to the less privileged, specifically those living in slum environments with poor infrastructure and lack of access to basic amenities, according to Uzor Ezechukwu who is the manager of projects and operations for the NGO.
Read Also: FG enforces weight limit on trucks to reduce damage on Nigerian roads
Ezechukwu who sat for nearly one hour talking to newsmen on the development said the organisation chose to provide medical services for households in the community because for donkey years, there has not been any form of medical care extended to residents of the area.
“As an NGO, we aim to close up the gap between the government and the people. Where the government cannot reach in terms of changing lives, we step in to fill up that gap by offering health care and other benefits,” he said.
With over 150,000 settlers in a community dominated by the Egun’s who migrated from Badagry and Republic of Benin and whose main occupation is fishing; Makoko slum, located on the coast of mainland Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, is known to be one of the poorest and dirtiest suburb, with residents lacking basic amenities, and also unable to speak English.
Data collated by HEAI from the 2-day outreach shows Hepatitis B, skin rash and malaria as most prevalent sickness bedevilling residents of the area.
This is not unconnected to the dirty environment in which they live.
Uzo Abakporo, medical and strategy director, HEAI, noted that there’s a high burden of both infectious and non-communicable diseases; their environment plays a major role in contributing to these issues due to lack of basic amenities and services like clean water and a sanitary environment.
According to him, HEAI through the SlumDoc initiative aims to foster deep partnerships with communities like this and contribute to improving access to health and other services to aid them in improving their quality of life. “This will in turn contribute to broader societal gains,” he said.
To communicate with residents, the NGO got an interpreter to translate spoken English to their local dialect.
Sunday Shemede, son of the Baale of Makoko WaterFront, who spoke on behalf of his father, Shemede Emmanuel, said the community is excited about the medical aid.
“This is one of the things we have been looking forward to, as the last time we had something like this was about eight years ago,” he said
On expectations from the government, he said hospital needs are of great priority for the people.
“After that, they can give us school as there are lots of children currently at home who would have loved to be in school,” Shemede said.
