The Rotary Club of Ikoyi has asked Nigeria’s business leaders to put more money into polio vaccinations so that the country can keep making progress in getting rid of the disease.
Nigeria was officially free of wild poliovirus in 2020, but the Rotary Club stressed that more needs to be done to keep it from coming back.
The call was made by Emmanuel Effuntayo, President of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi, during Rotary Family Health Days, which were held at the same time as World Polio Day.
He asked the federal government to work with non-governmental organizations to get more money for programs that will improve people’s health and well-being.
He talked about how important the current medical programs and vaccinations are for Nigerians’ health.
The Rotary Family Health Days event was co-hosted by the Rotary Club of Dolphin Estate. Members of both clubs went to primary health centers in the Ikoyi-Obalende and Iru-Victoria Island areas of Lagos State to vaccinate children against polio and spread the word about how important it is to find breast and cervical cancer early.
Effuntayo said that Rotary’s health programs are meant to fill in holes in the health care system, especially for people living below the poverty line.
He asked the government to back and pay for regular checkups for people who don’t get enough care.
“The Rotary Club has already spent more than N1 million on the first phase of this health initiative, which will help 1,000 people,” he said.
Nike Miyaki, who used to be head of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi, stressed how important it is to find breast and cervical cancers early in order to treat them.
She talked about how terrible breast cancer can be for people who have it and how committed the Rotary Club is to early screening and preventive care.
Douglas Jumbo, who is in charge of medical matters for the Rotary Club, also talked about how important it was to fight malaria, which is common in the area.
He said that the Rotary Club’s goal is to treat malaria, especially for people who live below the poverty line. He also said that the program is a national one that is happening in many areas in Nigeria.
Oyebola Adeyanju, the first president of the Rotary Club of Dolphin Estate, thanked the state government for working with the club to bring health problems to people’s attention.
Adeyanju stressed that more people should know what their health is like and get preventative care.
One recipient, Mrs. Alaba Aderinkola, thanked the organization for the free medical care, saying that she got medicines and glasses for free that would have cost a lot of money otherwise.
At the Rotary Family Health Days, people could get tested for and treated for diseases like malaria, HIV, high blood pressure, and TB, among others.
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