By Obiabin Onukwugha
Health they say is wealth. This informed the reason why a Pan-Ikwerre
organisation in the Diaspora, Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada, decided to
embark on a 5-day free medical mission in Rivers State.
This initiative comes handy and impacts positively on the lives of
communities in the local government, when residents who are mostly low
income earners are grappling to survive amidst economic hardships
caused by negative government economic policies and climate change
effects.
As of Wednesday, when Naturenews Correspondent visited venue of the
programme at Emohua local government council, over two thousand
persons have already benefitted from the free medicare.
Surgery for different ailments, breast cancer test, general treatment
and diagnosis, drugs administration, are among services rendered by
the Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada team.
It was gathered that the healthcare programme, which is being carried
out in partnership with other donor organisations such as Timoson Nig
Ltd., Americares, Medical Visions for Peace, University of Port
Harcourt Ophthalmology, Medical Women’s Association, Rivers State
branch, amongst others, is providing free medicare for different
health cases for the poor and needy who hitherto lack finances to foot
hospital bills.
President of Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada, Patrick Anyawoke, during an
interview told Naturenews that the medical mission was necessitated by
the need to provide medicare to those who don’t have the resources to
seek medical help.
He pointed out that this is the second edition of the programme which
is being held biennial. Anyanwoke lamented the growing medical needs
of people in the local communities and called for urgent steps from
well meaning individuals and government at all levels to commit to
providing health assistance to people in need.
Anyawoke said: “This is the second medical mission. The first medical
mission is more like a tip of the iceberg of what we saw then,
compared to what we see now. It almost seems like the problem is
growing and so we think that we need to do more so that we can support
and help provide healthcare need for our people.
“Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada is very much committed to this so that we
can collaborate we government, we can collaborate with anyone who
cares to ensure that we can deliver on the healthcare needs of our
people. Since this medical mission started on Monday we have seen over
two thousand people that flow into this place.
“This is a sign that people are in dire need of medical care and I
wish that we can do this every year but we are hoping that with the
biennial that we are doing we can still touch more lives.
“We learnt from the first mission some of the service gap so during
this edition we actually did more in terms of bringing more services.
We brought something as critical as breast cancer screening. It’s
hardly done here and I know that it’s becoming a common disease. Young
girls and even elderly persons.
“This is the way it should be and I think that this is time for
individuals to bring out their hands and be willing to donate their
time and resources to help other people.”
He added that health is greater than wealth because “if you have good
health you can definitely live life to a good extent.”
He, thanked the partners and volunteers, who pulled their resources to
make the programme a success.
Also, the Health Administrator for Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada, Dr.
Josephine Court, said over two thousand persons have been treated for
different ailments in the past three days, with majority of them
getting free surgeries.
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She stated that the free medical mission was made possible by
volunteer organizations and members of the Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada.
“When we see the healthcare in our country Nigeria, very very poor and
we know that a lot of people don’t have healthcare so we see that
there is a whole lot of need for medical care in all specialties. So
we decided to come and give the little care that we can. We had one in
2021 in Ikwerre local government area and Emohua are hosting us this
time.
“So we are looking at a whole lot of specialities. Here we are doing
surgeries, we are doing general surgery, we are doing eye surgery, we
are doing all kinds of surgery. Dental patients, and general practice.
We have people here for diabetics, hypertension. We’ve seen over two
thousand patients since Monday and we will see more.
“We are a non-profit organisation so we are bearing the cost. We have
humanitarian group so we source for funds from our members, from our
friends, from our co-workers, from everywhere. All our medications
came from abroad, except for the anti-malaria and typhoid that we
sourced from here.
“We also have an in-house pharmacist, Dr. Eze Timothy that has been so
helpful. He is a pharmacist and he is also great supplier of our
medications who transported everything on his own down here. We know
that our people are suffering that is why we are here to give help”,
she stated.
One of the beneficiaries of the free surgery is an elderly woman in
her late sixties, Rose Dike, who was treated of a lipoma, on Wednesday
through a surgery that last about an hour.
NatureNews gathered that the sexagenarian had lived with the ailment
for 25 years before the intervention of the free medical mission from
the Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada team.
Her surgery, is being referred to as the ‘Star Case’ of the 5-Day Free
Medical Mission. The sexagenarian, who expressed joy over the surgery,
was treated of the huge Lipoma, which was positioned on her back,
close to the neck.
In an Interview with Naturenews correspondent shortly after the
surgery, Dike, who hails from Obele Community in Emohua local
government area, said she had not been to the hospital because she had
no money.
Dike, who spoke in Ikwerre language, said before the surgery she could
only do menial jobs to fend for herself. She said, though she didn’t
fill pains, the discomfort and heaviness weighed her down and
prevented her from carrying out some activities. She thanked the
Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada for coming to her aid.
Doctor Segun, who spoke with Naturenews shortly before carryingout the
surgery said the sexagenarian thought she had deformity of the
vertebrae but when examined a case of lipoma was established that led
to the surgery.
“We saw this patient. For her she thought she has deformity of the
vertebrae but when we examined her we found out that it is a huge
lipoma that she has carried around for over 25 years. It was a case of
referral to a general hospital but I said its something we can do for
her. If she goes to general hospital she may not be able to foot the
bills and it is worth doing it, and I call the woman our Star Patient
for this mission. In less than an hour we will get it out and she will
be back to her normal self. Its a huge Lipoma. It is a penile
condition”, he said.
The Emohua local government Chairman, Dr Chidi Lloyd, who is host to
the free medical mission, has expressed gratitude over the initiative.
Lloyd, who is said to have been involved in providing support for the
free medical mission team, thanked the Ogbakor Ikwerre USA/Canada for
providing free medicare for people in the area. He told this
correspondent that the council intends to replicate the programme,
seeing the enormous impact it has on the people.
“We can’t thank them enough. I am also contemplating on how we can
also make this an annual programme for the local government for the
period I will be here. You know they said health is wealth and
especially at this time of economic crunch, people are not well and
people can’t make a descent living so we appreciate them,” he stated.
Free drugs and glasses are also being provided for eye surgery
patients and other ailments.
