…..Celebrate intellectually challenged on Children Day
The Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria,MWAN, Ekiti state chapter has alerted government on the need for adequate performance of it’s roles as critical stakeholders in health sector for the benefit of the populace.
Ekiti MWAN President,Akinsooto
MWAN declared that the duty of the government to make health care accessible and affordable to people for them to be able to live a worthy life is sacrosanct. It lamented the inadequacy in the sector which is said is seriously causing great havocs to people and the vulnerable in general.
This was the submission given yesterday by the President Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria,MWAN,Ekiti state Chapter, Akinsooto Esther Taiwo at the intellectally challenged school in Ido Ekiti, Ido Osi local government area of Ekiti state during a programme tagged ‘MWAN Outreach’ organized in collaboration with the Association of Lady Pharmacists in the state.
Some of the gifts presented to the children during the visit included food items, sanitary pad , and drugs.
Ajibola
Chairman, Association of lady pharmacists, Ekiti state branch,
MWAN President, Akinsooto said the gesture was meant to commemorate the children day globally celebrated on May 27.
“ The Ekiti state chapter of MWAN is coming to the special children school in Ido Ekiti, Ido Osi local government area of Ekiti state to give those children the feelings of what children day should look like , bringing smiles to their faces, bring joy to them with some gift items, we equally do some consultations, do some diagnosis to prescribe medications for them , we also brought some medications for their clinics that can actually be useful.
“Generally what medical women is all about is to impact the society to affect the people positively and to bring smiles to the faces of the populace especially the women / girl child and cutting across also to the boy child . we realize that these set of people actually do not have the privilege of day celebration done in their midst, most of the time,its government that finance them and support them, hence the decision to come and pay them a visit and also give them a facelift”.
The MWAN’s president noted that members of the association contribute to finance the expenses of the outreach ,using levies and dues of members to sponsor the programme .
On the state of health in Nigeria and the role of government, she said the government has a lot to do in policy making.
“ if you notice that nowadays a lot of health/medical workers are leaving the country for greener pastures and not only that, the security aspect is there , welfare, economic wise. A lot of people believe that Doctors, nurses are well paid , no!, if you look at the degree and load of patients they have to attend to and the numbers available, you will discover that the few ones left are overworked, so government need to do more to keep more of this people and to attract the new graduands to stay in the country rather than just jetting out.
“When I was talking to the principal of this school, he made me realize they don’t have designated health officer that works in the school, they only have a junior health officer ,that is community health extension worker, she is not trained to be able to handle the special need of these children, I believe if more health workers are actually retained ,there would be more people working at the rural level, primary health care , that is where the help is actually needed, before things get to secondary and tertiary level, if it is well handled at the primary health care level , the health workers would be able to go to the community and help people, before they develop diseases, prevention is better than cure, if this thing is actually prevented, there wont be need to admit people in the teaching hospital, the disease would have been picked and treated in the early stage before it became a major issue for specialist care, I believe if government do the appropriate thing , health care would be accessible and affordable to the populace”.
Lady pharmacists
The state chairman of the Association of Lady Pharmacists in Nigeria, Aderonke Ajibola said the outreach was designed to put smiles on the faces of the special children with the assurance that the stakeholders are ready to assist them become fruitful in life.
The Deputy Director, Ministry of Education in Ekiti and the principal of the school, Mr Salami Oduntan Razaq while expressing gratitude to the female medical associations said the gesture was the first of its kind . “ the school has a lot of challenges , though the state government is doing its best , governor biodun Oyabanji has given us bright new day , he has given us a sense of belonging , the school is owned by the state government, both feeding and maintaineance are done by the state government including accommodation, because it’s a boarding school, the challenges put up to the state government is always attended to .
“The school has staff challenges . Being a special school with also intellectual disability, so the situation is that a teacher could be for five students ,teaching them is not easy because of their nature, we have shortage of both teaching and non teaching staff what the MWAN has done today is great , the children themselves are very happy , the gifts brought would be useful for them. The state government cannot do it alone, we want to call on other stakeholders just like MWAN,lady pharmacists to complement the efforts of the government “.
Emmanuel
A Student of the school, Adekunle Emmanuel who spoke on behalf of others expressed appreciation and gratitude on the outreach with prayers that God strengthens the odonors.