BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A non-governmental organisation, The Complete Woman, has lamented worsening rates of morality among Nigerian women owing to lack of access to quality health care.
As part of ways of tackling the menace, the organisation offered free medical outreach to over 200 women in Osun State.
Addressing the beneficiaries at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the venue of the event, the convener of The Complete Woman Free Medical Outreach, Mrs . Tunrayo Falade, said most women experience avoidable deaths and ailments because they don’t go for medical check up constantly.
She explained that the outreach was put together to offer free medical consultations and drugs for women and also sensitise them on healthy lifestyles and the need to embrace regular body exercises and check-ups.
The women were exposed to series of medical examinations, testing, treatment and consultations by medical experts from various medical units.
After Dr. David Soyoye, a general doctor engaged the beneficiaries for free consultation, a gynecologist, Dr Tade Ijarotimi addressed the women on healthy sexual practices for conception. Dr. Henunumwen Murphy, an optometrist, educated the participants on how to care for their eyes after conducting series of eye screening for them. Other medical experts attended to the beneficiaries’ several health issues.
Speaking with The Point after the programme, Falade explained that, “The Complete Woman is an organisation that moldes and remoldes the 21st century women to be well rounded. We are represented in 29 states of Nigeria and in eight African countries. So, what we do is that we build women in every major aspect of their lives. So, for the health aspect of a woman’s life, we do campaign on health, we do outreaches, we supply drugs, we do consultations and screenings and health talks.
“We had massive turnout of women from different parts of Osun State. We had series of health talks which were handled by different medical professionals. We had about five dentists on ground and the Chief Dentist took the health talk about care of the teeth. We had the optometrist who gave talk and screened a lot of participants. Some were recommended for surgeries, some given glasses depending on their issues. We had free cervical screening for women. We had blood sugar test and blood pressure check. We did body mass index, measurements of heights and weights and we compared it with the standard formulas to test participants if their body was okay.
“We had HIV test and diet and nutrition consultation and there was a talk on how our diets affect our health. The professionals made the women to understand how their diet can affect their healthy living positively or negatively. We had physical exercise where women came out in their exercise attires and we had two trainers who taught the women the benefits of regular exercise.
“We also had a general doctor who did free medical consultation for all those who had one complainant or the other; drugs were prescribed and mosquito nets were shared. We did dental care also. Those who did not have good dentition, the dentists helped them to scale, filed and polish their dentition. Family planning, consultation and family planning methods were implanted in their bodies so that they can control their birth.”
“The rationale behind this outreach is because we realised that a lot of women die everyday because of avoidable sicknesses or because of ignorance. So, we feel that if we gather women as many as we can, reach out to them and educate them on their health and how their body works, what they should do to have a healthy lifestyle, we could save many from untimely death. We educated them on their health and why they should go for regular medical check-up and why they should do physical exercise regularly to avoid certain sicknesses,” she added.
One of the participants, Mrs Julianna Adekunle, commended the NGO for providing the free medical outreach, stressing that more of such would be appreciated.
