Over 500 persons from the Omuanwa Community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State have benefited from a medical outreach initiated by the National Association of Seadogs (Pirates Confraternity).
The NAS said the outreach was part of activities marking its 50th meeting in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Speaking at the sideline of the medical outreach held at the Omuanwa Primary Health Care Centre on Friday, Vice-President, NAS, Dr. Patrick Briggs, described the activity as part of its quarterly meeting.
Insisting that one of the ideals of NAS is offering humanitarian services, and the medical outreach is one of the ways is by helping people in communities that lack access to medical help
Dr. Briggs explained that the motivating factor for conducting the medical outreach is to see the downtrodden get necessary help when needed.
He said: “We are always looking out for the downtrodden in the society. We are always looking out for the people who don’t have. And so that ideal drives us. We know medical can be very expensive, especially in the rural areas.
“So, what we do is, we look at this and say, how can we contribute to the society? So, we have these medical missions regularly as a way of contributing our little quota to the society at large, to help the downtrodden access medical help.”
Dr. Briggs added that the association uses its resources and support from a few organizations to run the missions.
Chief Medical Officer of NAS Medical Mission, Dr. Odoemene Chiazor, explained that the medical outreach had been in existence for over 13 years.
He said that the association carries out general medical review in every community they visit and attend to cases within their capacity,vwhile referring others that need secondary care to appropriate facilities.
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He said: “So, what we try to do when we come is community-based healthcare. We try to do general review based on anything they present. If we see any case we cannot manage, that maybe needs secondary care or tertiary care, we refer them to the tertiary institution.
“But, those primary level, we take care of them here and support them, counsel them, and whatever else we can do for them”.
Prof. Prince Chinedu Mmom, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Environment Technology (FUET), Ogoni, expressed gratitude to the association for bringing the mission to his community.
He said the mission afforded many, who could not afford medical care the opportunity to be treated of their ailments.
He said: “It’s a feeling of joy that this outreach programme is holding in my community. I’m so excited because if you look at the crowd here, you will see so many people who are in need of one medical attention or the other.
“So, I commend the Seadogs for bringing this medical mission to my community. I’m so excited, and of course, I know that many people will benefit from this program today and at least improve their health conditions”.
Earlier, Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman of the community, Ajoku Prince expressed his appreciation for the gesture and called on other organisations to emulate the Seadogs in reaching out to the unreached in the society.
