Some residents of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State were last week beneficiaries of free medical care tagged NAS Medical Mission at the Aka Offot Primary Health Centre, Uyo as part of activities of the 47th Konverge of the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity).
Speaking at the event, NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje, said the NAS Medical Mission is part of efforts to bridge the gap in health care delivery to complement the efforts of the government at all levels.
“For example, we are doing our annual general meeting in Akwa Ibom this week. So we don’t just come and then just go. We try as much as possible to make an impact wherever we are going particularly when we see that the community needs support.
“That’s why, even when we were coming here to see, particularly the medical requirements of the community, we realized that there was a need to help rehabilitate a borehole as well. That is why members came to fix that,
“I have listened to the speech there (by the community) and I have taken note of needs because we are also trying to ensure that the need requirements that we look into are matched with what we can deliver to the community. We try and see which of them we can look into and then assist.
“It is not going to be the end because we always go back to such a community that we have provided support to see how the support we had provided is making an impact.
“We understand that the government cannot do everything because there are still many other things requiring seed funding. That’s where organisations like ours try to step in.
Owoaje, who seized the opportunity to inaugurate the borehole rehabilitated by the Sancta Riviera deck (Akwa Ibom chapter), said their interventionist programmes are also a way of advocacy.
He explained that some of the health challenges observed during the exercise would give the organisation an indication of the dominant medical problems of the community, which would be communicated to the government to tackle as well.
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“We understand that the government cannot do everything because there are still many other things requiring seed funding. That’s where organisations like ours try to step in.
While promising that the NAS, within the limit of its capacity, would continue to give back to the community, Owoaje thanked the Aka Offot community for welcoming them and providing an environment conducive to the exercise.
He promised to look into the issue of electricity, through the provision of a generating set as an interim measure pending when electricity would be restored at the centre.
The Chairman of the Ward Development Committee of the area, Otuekong Imeh Udosen, expressed appreciation of the people in the ward to NAS for the free medical outreach, saying the exercise had restored hope for the medical centre, especially with the rehabilitated borehole.
Udosen, however, listed some of the pressing challenges of the health centre including lack of electricity or generating set to pump water from the borehole, surveying, and fencing the premises to stem encroachment and absence of staff quarters.
The nurse in charge of the centre, Florence Udoudo, equally thanked the NAS team for the exercise even as she asked them not to forget the centre in future medical outreaches.
