From Frank Ikpefan, Abuja
The joy of residents of Galuwyi community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, knew no bounds the day the Rotary Club International arrived the sleepy settlement with free healthcare services for the largely indigent community.
The elderly, young and even little children, gathered at the community’s primary school compound to receive free medical tests and treatment courtesy of the Abuja Rotary Club District 9125, Maitama.
The event, which was part of the activities marking the Club’s annual Family Health Day 2019 was another of the Rotary’s usual way of giving back to the society.
Scores of the residents of the community received free HIV screening, hypertension screening, malaria screening and testing, free eye testing and treatment, screening for Hepatatis B and C. Others services also received by the community free of charge included free cervical/ breast/ prostate cancer screening and polio immunisation for children.
And for the community, the exercise isn’t going to be a one-off event, as the Club announced the Galuwyi community as its “adopted village”. The implication of this, is that they will continue to benefit from such services by Rotary Club District 9125 from time to time.
Speaking on the medical outreach, the President of the Club’s 9125 District, Eucharia Ekweozoh, said the medical outreach was part of Rotary’s annual medical intervention in poor communities across the globe.
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Ekweozoh said, “We are here to carry out our annual Rotary health outreach, which we call the Rotary family health day. We are here in this community because it is our adopted village.
“We are carrying out malaria test, HIV/AIDS screening, hepatitis B & C test, deworming of both children and adults. At the end, we will give them free drugs. The ones we cannot handle here we will refer them to other district hospitals.
A beneficiary of the free medical outreach, Lucy Joseph, commended the Club for the free medical services, which she said brought some relief to the entire community.
She said that residents of the community used to spend much of their hard earned money purchasing some of the drugs that were given to them free of charge by the Rotary Club.
The chief of the community, Ezekiel Sariki, who spoke on behalf of his people, was full of gratitude to the organisers and praised the Rotary Club for the free medical outreach. Sariki urged the Club to sustain the medical outreach so that members of the community that might have missed the event can benefit from it subsequently.
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