ROTARY CLUB OF NEW LAGOS IKEJA HOLDS FAMILY HEALTH, POLIO PREVENTION PROJECTS; ROTARIAN PRESIDENT LAWAL URGES LAGOSIANS TO AVERT FLOODING
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
Members of Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja during the Rotary Club Family Health Days Program held at Ogudu Primary Health Center.
Only in its second year of existence, the Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja, District 9110 Nigeria is taking giant strides in providing good healthcare to members of the immediate community that it serves.
In the course of three days, the club is offering multiple projects comprising family health and polio programs to the people of Kosofe and its environs. This is in line with a focus area of Rotary International which is Disease Prevention and Cure.
In his chat with Trek Africa Newspaper, the President of the Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja, District 9110 Nigeria, Rotr. Olumide Lawal shared: ‘This week is for multiple programs in the Rotary Club. The first is family health with different health screening like malaria, prostate cancer, diabetes, deworming for children etc. One of the major pillars of Rotary Club is Disease Prevention and Cure. If you know you have malaria, you can treat it. If you don’t know, then it can become a big issue. So if we test you and it comes positive, we will give you medication to take care of it. If you know you have HIV, you can manage it. People are living with it and living long enough. So we want to ensure that people check themselves, we want to reach as many people as possible, at least 100 per day in the next 3 days. We are giving out mosquito nets, routine medications, sanitary pads, female condoms, and male condoms. So the commonest is the male condom but if the guy doesn’t want to use, you as the female can use it to protect both of you. Prevention is better than cure.’
The Imaginative President added: ‘Another major event is polio – we did awareness walks in the Island and on the mainland on Saturday and Sunday, we are releasing balloons into the air today for more awareness. Nigeria has been polio-free for 3 years. What we are trying to do is keep polio in Nigeria at zero. Once you have achieved something, you don’t relax. Every child that is born now, we want to ensure that they get the vaccine and the PHC have been very supportive.’
‘The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been very supportive of Rotary International. We have to keep immunizing our children and ensure that nobody brings polio into the country. We have to keep creating awareness and immunizing our children’, Trek Africa Newspaper can report.
On the recent flooding challenge across Nigeria, Rotr. Lawal who is the second ever President of Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja revealed to Trek Africa Newspaper, ‘The recent flood issues is a problem. We have many Rotary districts where they are planning post-flood assistance for the communities e.g. bedding, accommodation, etc. There are meetings underway towards help that can be rendered in Lagos, for example, clean-up of homes, environment which can lead to the prevention of disease. Some clubs are also involved in Humanitarian activities.’
Also speaking to Trek Africa Newspaper, the Chairman for Service project for Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja, Rotr. Oluwaseun Ogunnoiki noted: ‘This project has to do with health which is a focus of Rotary Club International under Disease Prevention and Cure and Mother and Childcare. It is very paramount to us because people don’t pay attention to their health. So our program is to help our people that don’t believe in going to the hospital for the regular check-up. A lot of people believe that I have not eaten, I will now spend money in the hospital and they don’t know that if there is no life, there is no way they can make the money they are looking for. This is very important for an average Nigerian, it is not costing anything, it will help them a lot. We have polio immunization ongoing for 3 days after the polio walk yesterday. The Polio program Chairman is Rotarian Omolara Akinbami Ojo; we have done over 50 today.’
On the flood issue, Rotr. Ogunnaike told Trek Africa Newspaper, ‘This Kosofe LGA – Ogudu, Agboyi, Oworonsoki – is one of the LGAs that will be affected if there is any case of flood as government predicted. What we can do at our club level is to clear the drainage. For the victims, what we can do as club is to provide foodstuff, etc as immediate relief pending when government will come in with a solution.’
Some beneficiaries of the Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja health project also bare their minds to Trek Africa Newspaper. A young mother by name Esther said: ‘They gave us treatment for malaria and typhoid. We also got sanitary pads. I want to say thank you to Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja for being caring and for giving us treatment free. I will advise that we keep our environment clean so that mosquitoes will be avoided.’
Another mother, Bolanle Bankole added: ‘I did malaria test and blood sugar test. This is a good program especially for the malaria because it is not everybody that has money to go to hospital to treat malaria. I have not seen much from government but if a group of people can do something like this, then government can do something bigger.’
Advising other mothers, Mrs. Bankole said: ‘For babies I will advise that we should use hand sanitizer for people that want to touch them. We should give them the necessary medicine. We need to sanitize and keep our environment clean, we don’t keep dirty water around, we have nets on our windows and doors and then sleep under mosquito net.’
President, Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja, Rotarian Olumide Lawal
Chairman, Service Project for Rotary Club of New Lagos Ikeja, Rotarian Oluwaseun Ogunnaike 
