Follow Us on Google
By Doris Obinna
The Obijackson Foundation recently held a fundraising event to support partnership with Hospitals for Humanity (HFH).
The foundation’s aim is to provide life-saving congenital heart surgeries for children in need.
The event brought together individuals and organisations committed to making a difference in the lives of the young patients through generous donations, sponsorship and community support, which made significant gains toward its goal of providing critical heart surgery for children facing life-threatening conditions.
Its founder, Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, said: “We are concerned about the high mortality rate among children with heart defects and thus teamed up with international medical experts to provide life-saving surgeries.
“These funds that we raised will directly impact the lives of countless children and give them a chance to a healthy and fulfilling future. We are grateful to our partners, donors and volunteers for their unwavering commitment to our cause.”
Its director, Pamela Egbo, said one of the benefits of the partnership was that it would also provide the opportunity to transfer medical skills and build capacity in Nigeria’s healthcare system, considering this is a specialist field and local staff from the Obijackson Women and Children Hospital (OWCH) will work alongside HFH during the operation.
She said: “Through initiatives like this, the foundation is making a tangible impact on the lives of countless children and their families.”
Founder of HFH, Dr. Segun Ajayi, stated that the mission was clear: “To transform lives and save little hearts by providing essential life-saving surgery and medical care to those in need. We have been doing paediatric open-heart surgery for the last 10 years in Nigeria; saving little hearts is our goal.”
Ajayi said they have been able to screen over 2,000 children in Nigeria, and have been able to do over 250 surgeries as well. “It is a call to action, and I urge people to come together to support these vulnerable children and their families.”
A beneficiary, Ikechukwu Nwosu, from Imo State, said the initiative was God-sent as he was able to get his son, Ebube Nwosu, to undergo corrective heart surgery to block his open heart with 27mm hole that he has been living with since his birth 12 years ago.
Nwosu said he could not believe it as the process was done with the only payment he made being the transportation to the screening exercise where he was chosen.
For Chimamanda Udoka, catheterization was done for her to reposition her heart and she is grateful to the foundation for coming to her rescue.
