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George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The premises of Umuchima health centre, in Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo state proved insufficient to accommodate the over 400 persons including the aged, young and children who had come from across the council area to benefit from the free medical outreach sponsored by Uzotex Foundation on Saturday, August 3, 2019.
It was gathered that the pitiable state of primary and secondary healthcare infrastructure in the state in the last eight years had made many who could not afford medical bills in the private hospitals to either wait for opportunities like this or just resign to fate.
Many of those at the health centre were frail looking old men and women brought in vehicles by their relations and, even one of them was carried into the place because he could not walk on his own.
Coordinator of the foundation, Rev. Father Brendan Ike, parish priest of the Christ Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Umuchima, Ideato, said that the annual medical outreach was one of the good works of the foundation aimed at taking care of the sick, feeding the people and empowering the women and youths.
Uzotex Foundation was established nine years ago by a businessman, Festus Mbisogu to assist the most vulnerable in Ideato south council.
“The number of people especially the old persons who came here today far exceeded what we had when it was launched two years ago. In fact, we are grateful to Mr. Festus Mbisogu who had decided two years ago to include free medical outreach as part the programme of the foundation. He was the one who built the Umuchima health centre and handed it over to the government two years ago as well as providing water to all the communities in Ideato south by the drilling of boreholes. He is even the pillar of our church because majority of the projects are done by him,” the coordinator stated.
He added that the foundation has been distributing food items and cloths to widows and the less privileged on monthly basis and urged other privileged people to emulate the philanthropist.
Head of the medical team, Dr Victor Anaejionu disclosed that 40 medical doctors participated in the programme, adding that number of patients increased from about 300 last year to over 400 this time around.
“This time we also brought more optometrists because we discovered that besides the common ailments like high blood pressure, hernia, malaria and typhoid and diabetes, most of the elderly people have sight problems,” he said.
Anaejionu also said that there was room for surgery for those who needed it, including cataract operation.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Juliet Peter who was full of gratitude to the sponsor said she had been suffering from hernia for three months and did not have the resources to have it removed until this opportunity came.
Also, Pa Duruanyim Elthebert, a hypertension patient, said he was given drugs that would last for six months after being examined by the doctors.
Meanwhile, founder of the foundation, Mbisiogu said the mandate of the outfit was what God asked him to do and that by the grace of God, the free medical outreach will continue to solve the medical needs of the people of the area.
“Two years ago, I had built the health centre for the community because there was none and mainly because of the sad story that my mother had told me about the death of my immediate younger brother who died because there was no medical centre in the community and that he could not be taken to the nearest hospital which was about 12 kilometres away that fateful night he took ill as he died before reaching the hospital,” he said.
Daily Sun learnt that he has so far provided boreholes to about 19 communities in Ideato south to reduce the suffering of the people in going to the stream “which is about a kilometre away to source water for their domestic use.”
He further disclosed that the foundation was already building skills acquisition centre to train youths and women in vocational skills in order to reduce rural poverty.
He added that “Already the foundation is paying the old widows every month to enable them take care of their immediate needs and we shall continue to do that as long as God gives us the enablement”.
