The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NGO

  • Hospital, NGO restore hope to cancer patient

    Apollo Hospitals, India, in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Hope Alive Child Care Initiative (HACCI), has restored hope to an eye cancer patient.

    Country Head, Apollo Hospitals, Rakesh Jalla said the hospital joined the NGO to ensure that three-year-old Tobechukwu Nkwocha is treated at a low cost.

    He said cancer is expensive to treat, and as such requires a lot of money from patients.

    “This is why it is important for us to work in a way where we can raise fund to help cancer children in Nigeria,” he said.

    Jalla said they had raised some money for the patient’s tests so that he can get better, adding: “This is an initiative we have just started and we hope to sustain. ”.

    He said the hospital wants patients treated in Nigeria but those that cannot be managed locally can be taken overseas.

    “We are paying for the cost of investigation at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Also, we have offered discount to enable him enjoy unhindered treatment,” he said.

    HACCI president, Adaugo Nwalema, said the hospital has been helping the three-year-old,adding that he still requires N1.2 million to complete his treatment.

    She said her NGO came to the boy’s aid because his parents cannot afford the cost of his treatment.

    “He was in dire straight and he needed help. His parents were paying N50,000 every fortnight for his chemotherapy at LUTH. He was asked to do nine sessions of chemotherapy,” she said.

    Adaugo said the NGO took over the treatment about six months ago when the parents could no longer pay the bills. The boy’s father, Mr Kingsley Nkwocha, said the family was spending N200,000 monthly on his treatment.

    He said so far about N1.5 million has been expended.

  • NGO educates pupils on their rights

    To commemorate the 2015 International Human Rights Day, a non-governmental organisation, Women Rights and Health Project, WRAHP, educated over 100 pupils drawn from 13 schools around Ejigbo Local Government Area of Lagos State on their rights.

    Themed: “Our rights, our freedom always”, the convener of the programme, Mrs Bose Ironsi said children have rights and the rights must be protected.

    She said the training exposed the pupils to the concept of rights, how to apply the rights and how to demand for their rights.

    “We need to children who are the future to understand all these so that we can have a better society. I am sure that they now also know that it is their right to go to school and their responsibility to read their books,” she said.

    Adebowale Ayo, a pupil of Durable Comprehensive High School, Ikotun, said she learnt a lot, including causes of human rights abuses and how to protect her rights from being violated.

    She promised to enlighten her school mates about their rights.

    She called on government to make sure that the organisations set up to look into issues of human rights are functional. Obijiaku Chukwuemeka of Ronik Comprehensive School, Ejigbo also promised to spread the word.

    “When I leave here, I will tell others about it because many are ignorant,” he said.

     

  • NGO offers free surgery for children with cleft lip

    NGO offers free surgery for children with cleft lip

    A group, Smile Train, a Non-governmental Organisation in partnership with University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH),   has offered free surgery for children with cleft lip. The group, which came with eight specialist surgeons to carry out the operation using UPTH theatre, said no child needs to live with cleft.

    Over 30 children were operated  and as of when the Nation  left the theatre room some parents whose children had the defect were seen at the UPTH reception  making necessary preparation to benefit from the free surgery.

    Briefing reporters at the UPTH conference room after the first successful operation, Mrs.  Victoria Awazie, the team leader, Smile Train, said some parents had disowned their babies when they discovered that they had cleft lip problem.

    She said it was evil to throw away babies because he or she had defect.

    Awazie said it was because of the challenges children with the defect pass through that made Smile Train to offer free cleft surgery in Nigeria. She noted that over 11, 345 children have been successfully operated in Nigeria.  She added that there operation had been expanded to West African countries, India and other countries of the world.

    She said the main purpose while her group decided to offer free surgery around the world was because parents were seeing babies with defect as bad baby. She narrated how a woman who delivered a baby with cleft lip problem poisoned her baby twice because she did not want people to know that the baby she delivered has a defect.

    “This is not the first time we have been coming to Port Harcourt to partner with UPTH over this surgery. It is on record that some parents are now killing their own baby just because that baby has a defect. But it is bad, we are trying our best in terms of publicity to inform parents that they don’t need to kill their baby because of defect. Now we are in Port Harcourt we have been using the media to invite the public to bring any of their babies, relative, neighbour and friend who has cleft lip problem for free operation.  We are going to correct that defect and nobody would know that such baby has a defect.

    “The most important thing is for public to understand that the service is free. One thing the parent or the public needs to know is that no child needs to live with a cleft. And cleft lip child is not a curse or bad omen, anybody with a cleft lip problem can be helped. We have our specialist surgeons to do a neat operation. Our main objective is to bring smile to the faces of children and adult with cleft lip problem.

    The Chief Medical Director of UPTH, Prof. Aaron Ojule who showed gratitude for the free surgery offered by Smile Train said he wants privilege Nigerians to take the opportunity to contribute on the free surgery by donating to Smile Train since other faceless privilege individuals are paying bills to make the surgery free.

     

     

  • NGO, FRSC to join forces for safer roads

    NGO, FRSC to join forces for safer roads

    A strategic partnership aimed at making the roads safer for motorists and others during the “Ember months” has taken off.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and BeWise Community Empowerment initiative (BCEI), a non-governmental organisation, will work on the project.

    BCEI convener, Mrs Susan Chisom,  said her organisation would campaign against indiscriminate disposal of trash on the roads by motorists.

    The group, she said, has adopted a slogan: “Don’t be a killer,” to make many road users aware of how their actions, taken most times unconsciously, may lead to accident and eventual deformation or death of victims.

    She said: “We are saying to all road users, whether you are a motorist, or pedestrian that you should not be part of the problems. Don’t drop or litter the roads with things that could be injurious to other road users. Throwing things such as banana peels, water sachet, plastic pet bottle of drinks, out of the car windows, could be injurious to someone else, who might be coming behind or an unsuspecting pedestrian, leading to injuries, accident and even death.”

    Mrs. Chisom said it was curious that rather than use trash bins sold to commercial vehicles, motorists and passengers dispose refuse on the road, constituting not only a threat to the safety of others, but environmental menace -blocking of drainage – which causes  flooding.

    The Head, Public Education and Enlightenment of the FRSC, Mrs Olabisi Sonusi, who led FRSC officials on the road show, said the corporation was happy to partner with the group to make the roads safer.

    Sonusi said the indiscriminate throwing of waste and litters not only constitute an environmental nuisance, but is a causative agent of accidents on the roads. She praised the group for coming up with the initiative, which would not only address a major source of accidents, but ultimately help in sanitising the environment and beautify the nation.

    According to her, educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of keeping the roads safe and litter-free is a task for all Nigerians.

    BCEI’s media coordinator, Mr Nelson Ubong, said the road show would soon be taken to all motor parks and public places in Lagos State, Abuja and other parts of the country.

    Ubong said the need for attitudinal change among motoring public could not have come at a better time when Nigeria has started experiencing change in all areas of her national life.

    “One of the ways we would completely erase our profile as the dirtiest nation on earth lies in keying strongly into the campaign of the Bewise inititiave. This is a campaign, which is aimed at not only addressing how we manage our waste, but also at ensuring the safety of lives of all road users,” Ubong said.

    He praised Mrs Chisom for coming up with the initiative, which he said would re-orientate Nigerians and contribute to the safety of lives on our roads.

    Ubong called on well meaning Nigerians, especially strategic development partners and the media, to help the group by supporting the initiative.

  • NGO advocates improved hand washing habit

    The Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which is committed to promoting children’s healthy living, has joined children and adults in Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State to celebrate this year’s Global Hand Washing Day.

    The group said it is committed to sensitising Nigerians to proper hygiene practices and to raise people’s awareness to the effect that washing hands with soap is a powerful public health intervention.

    With a theme “Raise a Hand for Hygiene,” the event was organised to promote improved hygiene practices and draw attention to the world’s enormous sanitation challenges.

    Speaking at the event, campaign Coordinator of Save the Children, Adeyoju Olukemi said: “Through the stop diarrhea project in Shomolu and Berger, we are calling on all relevant stakeholders in the project to promote hand washing with soap to reduce diarrhea in children and implement large-scale hand washing interventions by combining the expertise and resources of soap industry with the facilities and resources of government.”

    She explained that hand washing plays an important role in the efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with regard to health improvements, education, poverty reduction, child mortality, effective use of water supply and sanitation services as agreed to by member countries of the United Nations (UN), including Nigeria.

    “According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhea kills almost two million children every year, making it the second leading child killer diseases worldwide. A simple hygiene habit could halve this figure,” Olukemi said.

    She added that the inaugural Global Hand Washing Day puts this often disregarded hygiene challenge at the forefront of the international agenda while keeping the children at the heart of each country’s national local initiative.

    The Assistant Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Shomolu Local Government Area, Olaniyan Aderemi Ezekiel commended the efforts of Save the Children in putting up a praiseworthy event.

    He said: “With the outbreak of Ebola that God helped us in curtailing, a lot of awareness has been created on hand washing culture. Impacting hand washing culture in the lives of our people within Shomolu has improved because it is a habit that people have not been practising prior to the outbreak of Ebola.”

    He noted that after the outbreak of Ebola, the NOA has made it a point of duty to interact with people on the importance of hand washing and sanitation, which has changed the habits of many people.

    “We meet and engage people, through our community support brigadiers and the sanitary inspectors who go round to sensitise the populace to the importance of hand washing. We go from market to market, organisations to organisations and groups to groups to engage them on importance of hygiene,” he said.

     

     

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    we are calling on all relevant stakeholders in the project to promote hand washing with soap to reduce diarrhea in children and implement large-scale hand washing interventions by combining the expertise and resources of soap industry with the facilities and resources of government…Impacting hand washing culture in the lives of our people within Shomolu has improved because it is a habit that people have not been practising prior to the outbreak of Ebola

  • NGO founder grooms Kogi youths

    NGO founder grooms Kogi youths

    Founder of an entrepreneurship and leadership non-governmental organisation, Inspire the Future, Chiedozie Igweonu has been training Kogi State youths in skills and leadership.

    Spurred by a passion to make an impact on the society, Dozie, as he is better known, started his pet project aged 27, while undergoing the compulsory national youth service in 2013. Today, the Inspire the Future Project is gradually growing into a full-fledged NGO which he believes in a few years’ time will be Africa’s premier social entrepreneurship project.

    Born in Maiduguri, Borno State, Dozie had his primary and secondary school education in Abuja, where his parents who are both from Anambra State lived and his first degree in Human Anatomy at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    He described himself as an avid reader who is fairly active on the social media.

    “I love working with young people,” he enthused.

    According to him: “I enjoy working with young people especially if it will have a positive impact on society. In the last ten years I have served in the teams responsible for projects like “The Undergraduate Business Conference”, “The Catalyst Youth Development Platform”, “Vote

    or Shut-up Electoral Education Initiative and Youth Advance and Development”, in some states which has impacted more than 15, 000 youth in the last two years.

    “I have always wanted to be a positive drive to change the African narration and honestly I believe that we as a nation cannot go far with the current structure of our educational sector. Then, I saw the UNICEF report where they alluded that there are more than 10 million out of school kids in Nigeria alone. I was angry at the failure of the system that was responsible for this ill but I needed to channel my anger to a more positive venture hence “Inspire the Future” was born.

    Prior to this I had written down the goals, mission and vision on how to intervene in the quagmire facing the education sector in Nigeria but the analysis of that report was the fire I needed to act immediately”.

    Speaking on what the project is about, he said it started as a tour of primary and secondary schools and was aimed at promoting academic excellence using the models in a popular book titled: “17 secrets of high flying students”, written by Fela Durotoye.

    He continued, “In our first year, we succeeded in visiting 10 schools situated in Kogi State and we impacted an average of 1,000 per pupils. By the second year we expanded by providing a platform for these pupils to connect to exemplary people who served as mentors to them.

    We also provided after school mentorship training for a select few. In our third year we had reached more than 20,000 young people. As our impact increased over the years, we did some major restructuring and reassessed some of our short and long term goals which includes

    getting at least 500 underprivileged kids, especially in educationally less developed states in the North back to school. We are also overhauling our model to a more sustainable social entrepreneurship structure, meaning that in the nearest future we will be less dependent on donations but we would have the capacity to generate the necessary resources required to carry out our programs”.

    He listed the biggest challenge confronting the initiative as knowledge gap.

     

  • NGO feeds, distributes school materials to pupils

    NGO feeds, distributes school materials to pupils

    The 55th Independent President’s Inter – State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Debate Championship hosted by the Ogun State government ended last Saturday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, with Anambra State team going home with the prized championship trophy and a cash gift of N150, 000.

    The Kaduna State team, which emerged second in the keenly contested trophy, went home with N100, 000, while Niger State had N75, 000 for making it to the third position, all donated by the host government.

    No fewer than 16 states apart from the Nigeria Police Schools, participated in this year’s edition of the debate, with teams from  Anambra and Kaduna making the final stage, where they engaged in a fierce intellectual battle on the topic: ‘Presidential handshake or monetary reward. Which is better?’

    The winner argued on the side of Presidential handshake.

    The Independent President’s Inter – SUBEB Debate Championship was initiated by the then administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to inculcate reading culture and core national values in pupils.

    The Chief Adjudicator of the debate, Mrs Ayodele Adigun, urged the young ones to be good ambassadors and advised parents and teachers to impart positively on their wards for a better Nigeria.

    The Chairman, President’s School Debate National (PSDN) Advisory Board, Prof Jerry Agada, described the competition as epochal, saying it was put in place to discover intellectual talent inherent in the nation’s  younger generation.

    Agada said the championship has demonstrated that education could be strengthened through determination and resourcefulness.

    Deputy Governor, Yetunde Onanuga, who represented  Senator Ibikunle Amosun at the event,  reiterated the government’s  commitment to the development of education sector as a key factor in the socio-economic development of the state.

    Onanuga noted that the debate, apart from  fostering national unity among the young ones, also engendered the spirit of healthy competition, reading culture, using dialogue to resolve issues as well as public speaking in them.

    Meanwhile, Senator Amosun was honoured with the award of the Pillar of Education Development of Ogun State at the occasion.

  • NGO raises HIV alarm in Enugu

    A non-governmental organisation, Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CiSHAN), Enugu State Chapter has alerted the people and government of the state on the apparent increase of HIV infection in the state.

    According to the organisation, more funds ought to be budgeted for HIV/AIDS related cases in the state to rid it of the scourge.

    The Enugu State coordinator of CiSHAN, Mrs. B.C Nwibechukwu who disclosed this in an address when the organisation paid a working visit to the Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Edward Ubosi lamented that infection occur among the low risk heterosexual group which includes people who are in marital or cohabiting relationship.

    “The state HIV prevalence shows that the rate of infection is on the increase (rise) and presently far above the national and zonal average,” Nwibechukwu laments.

    Nwibechukwu pointed out that 1986 survey report showed that Enugu State had high prevalence of above 6.5% which was the highiest then in the country but with time, the rate came down but is now surprised that it has begun to rise again.

    She explained the source of her fears.  “Recent studies and surveys carried out reveals new infection trends coming from the hitherto low risk segment of the population that were not targeted for preventive services.”

    Mother-to-child transmission of HIV constitutes a huge public health concern globally and especially in resource-poor countries.”

    The coordinator who said they used the visit to intimate the Speaker on the forthcoming launching of their maiden Strategic Plan document in November, expressed worry that if nothing was done fast, Enugu State might be in serious danger in future because some donor agencies would soon stop their financial intervention.

    “Honourable speaker sir, we are worried and concerned on the ability of the state to sustain the gains made in the areas of HIV & AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support.

    “Our worry is worsened by the continuous donor fatigue and also due to the fact that most donors would be closing shops towards the fall of 2015.  What this portends is that if no proactive measure is taken to sustain the gains and improve on it, we may find ourselves in a state worse than we where some few years back.

    To help reduce the rising rate of the pandemic, Nwibechukwu urged the Speaker to use his good offices to see that a bill is sponsored to dedicate funds in the Enugu State annual budget for CiSHAN for ownership and sustainability of HIV/AIDS response.

     

  • Transcorp, NGO to build IDP camp

    Assisting Caring Empowering (ACE) Charity in collaboration with the Transcorp Hilton is set to build a temporary camp for displaced people in Abuja.

    The camp which will have all modern facilities will be situated in Kabusa and accommodate 250 internally displaced families.

    It will be managed by the charity organisation.

    Founder of ACE Charity Kiki James explained that the camp will be made out of old containers and surrounded by a fence.

    “We want to set up a proper Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp like that of Syria, in Kabusa. Hopefully it should be ready before the year runs out; our donor agencies are already sending the containers. Transcorp Hilton does a lot in terms of providing most of the things we need. The camp is going to be equipped with a skills acquisition centre, school, clinic and warehouses to keep the relief materials donated by our donor agencies,” she said.

    Public Relations Manager Transcorp Hilton Abuja, Mr Shola Adeyemo explained the ACE charity partnership is the longest that they have had with any charity organisation and this is because of the honesty that they saw in them.

    He said that Transcorp will assist ACE in maintaining the camp by helping in hygiene management and staff.

     

  • NGO screens 1,017 Bayelsa residents for HIV

    NO curtail the spread of HIV, an NGO, Mercy-Seat Holistic Development Organisation, has carried out free HIV screening of 1,017 residents of Bayelsa State.

    The NGO’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Torukuru Adakien, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last Monday in Yenagoa.

    Adakien said the HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) were aimed at educating the people on the truths and facts about HIV.

    “We conducted this programme to support campaigns against HIV/AIDS, especially in Bayelsa; there is need for us in the society to know our HIV status.

    “During the programme which ended on Sept. 30, we had free HCT Uptake of 1,017 persons in the period; we started by advocacy visits to Motor Parks and Mechanics Villages/Shops.

    “The advocacy visit was done in the three Senatorial District of Bayelsa; we also distributed free condom of over 800 packets to the people.

    “This programme was in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development,’’ he told NAN praising the government for supporting the course.

    “We understand that HIV is one of the dreaded diseases all over the world, but I believe we can tackle the disease if we can come together to support the campaign.’’

    Adakien said that sex has been established to be the common means of spreading the disease and urged those who could not do without sex to always wear condom for protection.

    “You can also avoid contacting HIV by abstaining from unprotected sex, sharing sharp objects like razor blade, hair clipper among others,’’ Adakien said.

    He said that the outcome of the screening would be discussed with the concerned individuals.