The Abonnema community in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State and its environs were agog recently as the medical team from Care for Life Foundation, an initiative of High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs visited the area to offer free medical treatment to over 5,500 residents who were suffering from various ailments.
Aged men, women and youths trooped out in their large numbers to access healthcare services which they lack due to grippling poverty pervading the rural communities.
The five-day intensive healthcare outreach held at the Abonnema General Hospital. It was the third visit of the foundation to the area in its 13 years of existence and 22nd outreach across the South-South region.
Executive Director of the Foundation, Mrs. Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs described the foundation’s gestures as their own way of appreciating God’s call and mercies upon their lives.
Mrs. Lulu-Briggs recalled that after the 2008 outreach at Abonnema, the foundation has successfully reached out to other remote communities in Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states as well as several others in Rivers State, where over 67,000 lives were positively touched and surgeries performed.
She reiterated that the foundation’s concern was to provide quality healthcare for people at the grassroots, especially those indigent ones who could not afford medical care.
The director expressed concern over increasing rate of ailments among the rural poor. She called for upgrade of medical facilities in the public healthcare centres with the latest technology to meet the reality on ground.
She pledged the foundation’s readiness to partner with the state government to upgrade facilities at the Abonnema General Hospital for the use of residents of the community and its environs.
“The number of patients that have turned out in the last three days of this outreach suggests that there is need for the country to upgrade her healthcare system from stage one to the current 21st Century stage four healthcare system as practised by countries such as India, United States of America and the United Kingdom, among others.
“There is need to make drastic and positive changes in our healthcare system in terms of improvement in the remuneration of health personnel, provision of appropriate drugs, medical instruments, equipment and facilities, as well as the maintenance of same; so as to avert a retrogressive effect on our socio-economic development.
“In this regard, the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation is having preliminary discussions with the Rivers State government to partner with it on making the General Hospital in Abonnema a fully operational and world-class hospital as it should be,” she stated.
No fewer than 5, 504 patients were treated, even as 49 surgeries were carried out at the Abonnema outreach. Those diagnosed with HIV were counselled and referred for further treatment along with those that have major cases which could not be effectively handled within the period of the outreach.
Some of the beneficiaries expressed their gratitude to O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation for its benevolence to the poor.
A middle-aged man whose nine-year surgical error was corrected testified at the event. He said: “I had major (appendix) operation in 2000. The appendix ruptured in my stomach. I was the only survivor of the six people that had the problem at that time.
“In 2011, I was invited for the second round of the operation; they said it would be re-opened and closed back. But for fear of the death of some of those who underwent the surgery along with me, I decided to go to a private hospital.”
Also, a 25-year-old male beneficiary who suffered from hernia expressed his gratitude to the foundation for its love for the people.
He said the condition deprived him of the ability to fend for himself. He expressed joy that the opportunity provided by the Lulu-Briggs Foundation has given him succour.
Pastor Amaechi in a topic entitled “Bearing Good Fruits,” said “bearing good fruits engenders peace, love, forgiveness, patience and joy in the family, whereas bad fruits bring sorrow, anger and troubles in the family and, by extension, the wider society.
Quoting copiously from Psalm 15:2, he urged people to bear good fruits so that God would reward and bless them.
On the medical cases they handled in the week-long outing, Dr Etuk Akpan, a surgeon said: “The services we’ve been rendering included general out-patient services, consultations, prescriptions for common medical ailments as well as surgical operations for common /minor surgical conditions that will not require in-patient treatment and monitoring.
“By minor surgeries I mean hernias, lumps, lynpomer and appendix, among others. However, the pre-dominant case is hernia, which could be as a result of the people’s predominant fishing, farming and other hard labour occupation.
“We have performed a total of 49 surgeries and we are still counting because we still have so much number in our list and the programme is still on.”
Dr. Akpan recommended frequent access to health facilities for routine and regular check-ups on the people’s general health and high blood pressure levels to enable them to manage their health conditions for longevity.
The Chairman of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Theodore Gorgewill, expressed his gratitude to the foundation for its intervention on the health needs of residents. He promised to upgrade the facilities at the Abonnema General Hospital, venue of the programme.
