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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Succour has finally come the way of residents of Ute-Erumu, an agrarian community in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State, following the inauguration of a cottage hospital built by wives of officers of military and police formations, under the umbrella of Defense and Police Officers’ Wives’ Association (DEPOWA).
Although the hospital has not been equipped, it was handed over to the state government for proper management.
Nevertheless, residents of the town expressed gratitude to their daughter and president of DEPOWA, Mrs. Victoria Irabor, who is also the wife of the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Lucky Irabor, for attracting the project.
They called on the state government to make the facility functional in order for them to have easy access to healthcare, adding that the community has suffered in the past trying to access healthcare in faraway Agbor, Boji-Boji and Owa-Alero.
According to Chief Chris Nwachokor, the hospital is a great reward to the community “and even the entire Ika nation will benefit from this place. This is what we have been expecting from the state government.
“Before now, we found it difficult to access healthcare, we had to go to Owa-Alero, Agbor hospital. When there is an emergency, you have to travel a long distance. At times, there will be no means of transportation, particularly at night.
“Now that we have it around here, we can even use bicycles or motorcycles to rush patients here. We thank the donors.”
Also, Chief A.N. Monye said the community was overwhelmed with joy, as the health facility, which they yearned for over the years, had been brought to their doorsteps, and called on the state government to immediately make it functional.
“With the effort of the government, it will be functional. We are urging the state government to employ workers here and as they are working, there is every possibility that the hospital will be sustained.
“It is only when there are no workers that there will be a problem. So the government should equip it and deploy workers here. We need government effort to sustain this project,” Monye said.
For Mr. Smart Utebor, the hospital is the first of its kind in the remote community, expressing the hope that the issue of avoidable death would now be a thing of the past.
Facilitator of the project, Mrs. Irabor, explained why she brought the cottage hospital to her homeland.
“There is no hospital in my village, no maternity, not even a dispensary, and I come from a family with a medical background, my mother is a retired nurse, three of my siblings are medical doctors.
“I felt that the right project to execute in my village should be a cottage hospital like this and also to do something in line with the vision of the state government that has done so well in the health sector,” she said.
The DEPOWA president revealed that the project was conceived in consultation with the wife of the immediate past governor of Delta State, Dame Edith Okowa, with a view to making healthcare easily accessible to rural dwellers.
Mrs. Irabor said she was happy to have impacted on her people through the project, and urged the community to protect the facility from vandals.
Those present at the ceremony included the president of Navy Officers’ Wives’ Association (NOWA), Aisha Nana Gambo; president of Air Force Officers’ Wives Association (AFOWA), Elizabeth Amao; president of Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA), Hajara Usman-Baba; and president of Army Officers’ Wives Association (AOWA), Salamatu Yahaya, represented by Stella Omozoje.
Inaugurating the project, Dame Okowa said anything that would help improve the health of the people and their general well being should be supported by all stakeholders, particularly government.
