The Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN) has on Friday offered free medical services to over 800 beneficiaries at Yanoko community of Tofa Local Government area of Kano state.
According to the MWAN President, Kano state chapter, Dr Rahila Mukhtar, the outreach is a biannual event and targeted about 800-1,000 beneficiaries from the area.
She also said the outreach is the apex part of the annual National Executive Council meeting of the association.
She said, “We started around 11:30 in the morning and we hope to be here till evening. And the people’s turnout appears to be impressive.
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“We have about seven units offering free medical services here in the areas of breast and cervical cancer screening, dental consultation, male and female consultations, ophthalmologists, pediatricians, pharmacy and laboratories for running of instant tests.
“In the dental unit, we have done dental scaling and polishing, tooth extraction, while in the ophthalmology, we gave out eye glasses, and in the pediatric, we have done mass deworming and folic acid distribution,” she added.
Similarly, Dr Adekemi Otolorun, the MWAN national President said she is impressed with the way their members attended to beneficiaries, especially by helping the less privileged members of the community.
“It is part of our commitment to give back to our society. Also, after our NEC meeting yesterday, we agreed that there should be an outreach every month, unlike the quarterly we used to do before,” Otolorun explained.
Also, Professor Hadiza Shehu Galadanci, Director, African Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP), Bayero University, Kano, said the community outreach is to provide health care services to the community, free of charge, as part of their corporate social responsibility.
“We have gynaecologists providing medical consultation, cervical/cancer screening, dentists also providing dental care, pediatricians providing care for children, the physicians and the rest.
“We are providing comprehensive medical care today, and everything is free, by members of MWAN from all parts of the country. We are also giving free medications as well, it is not only the consultation here.
She said the benefiting community is part of the adopted communities identified by the ACEPHAP since last year, and has been working with different stakeholders in the Local Government area.
Beneficiaries who spoke to Daily Trust expressed their satisfaction for the gesture and called on other NGOs to emulate them.