No fewer than 1,000 residents of Aremo, Ode-Aje and its environ in Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Oyo State have benefitted from free health service, sponsored by Mafoya Oluwa Mbe Pelumi Foundation.
The free health service to the residents by the Foundation, in conjunction with doctors from the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, include free COVID-19 test, blood sugar level, HIV, eye test and free glasses, among others.
The program, which started on Thursday, 23 September, will run till Sunday, 26 September, to afford more residents to benefit from the free health care service.
Coordinator of the Foundation, Mr. Olusegun Agboola, said that the foundation initially resolved to take care of health needs of about 1000 residents of Ibadan, but with the turn out of about 1000 on the first day alone, the beneficiaries may run into 3000.
While lamenting the situation of the nation’s health sector, Agboola said that the foundation took it upon itself to care for the people because the government alone cannot do everything.
He said, “The Foundation took it upon itself to provide free heath care service to some communities in Ibadan metropolis because health is wealth. It is regrettable that our doctors are currently on strike, but interestingly, some of these doctors are members of the NGOs that are providing free service for the people.
“Because they know the oath they took, that first and foremost to save lives. When there are strikes, it is always around certain demands. But I know that it is between them and the government.
“Basically one of the areas of our foundation is health. We are introducing health talk, it is health education, when people know what is not good for them, they can stop it. Aside health talk, as you can see, we are giving free heath care service to our people at community level. We are doing this in conjunction with doctors and medical equipment from UCH.
“We are sensitising the people. We taking care of more than a thousand people at two locations. Initially we are thinking of 500 each for the locations. The locations are here in Aremo and Oke Ofa Atipe, but we are already taking care of no fewer than a thousand here.
“This means, basically the second location may also witness like a thousand. The providers are here with basic medical equipment and drugs. They are here with basic equipment to do some tests on hypertension, COVID-19, blood sugar level, eye test and provision of recommended classes and other basic health services.”
