USA-based Anambra family from the Ogidi community, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state on Friday commenced a two-day free medical outreach with 1500 beneficiaries out of 4000 targeted.
Mr Moses Okaro, President and Founder of Lifted Hands INC, organisers of the event, said that 1,500 people had been screened for different illnesses, and treated so far and 2,500 more are hoping to be treated.
Okaro noted that the initiative which started 15 years ago is an annual event with 10,000 beneficiaries so far in memory of their late mother, Mrs Gladys Okaro, a widow who died at the age of 80 years.
“We have here today about 15 medical personnel (gynaecologists, paediatricians, nurses, dentists and eyes doctors) from the USA on the ground to be assisted by the local medical practitioners to handle this programme professionally.
“We came back home to carry out the medical outreach for over 3,000 people in our community. We’re taking care of them with different medical treatments.
“This year’s programme will include free eye checks and surgeries, medical check up, diabetes tests, malaria tests, high blood pressure tests and mental health checks.
“We are also feeding over 2,000 people. We’ve also commenced giving out clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, slippers, detergents, books, pencils, and pens to primary school pupils and secondary school students.
“We are doing it for two days this year, and our people are appreciating us, we plan to do it for 3-4 days next year,” he said.
He appealed to the Federal and state governments to help medically touch the lives of poor masses.
“Think if they starts from local level having minor screenings for eyes pressures, many people won’t be having eyes blindness. Getting medication now is very expensive,” he said.
Mr Nelson Okaro, the eldest in the family said: “We are proud of what we are doing for our people for the past 15 years.
“A lot of us travelled from the United States of America back home to do this with the medical team and our people are happy and appreciative of what we are doing.
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“Some years back, we started it in a very limited way just for the widows because our mother was a widow before she died, but we expanded it last year,” he said.
On her part, Ms Ekennem Okaro, a USA-based nurse, also collaborated with the president, that the medical outreach, is in memory of their late mother who started the journey by reaching out to the poor.
According to her, we have to key into the programme to sustain it, though this time we’ve expanded it beyond our community, even by extension across the country.
Explaining further, she said that 40 eye surgeries were handled last year with spillover that has to be operated upon in this year’s edition.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Elisha Mbamalu, who received a free eye test and glasses, commended the Okaro family for sponsoring the free medical outreach, he prayed that God should continue to strengthen them to do more.
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