As part of activities for its Second Convention held in Sagamu, the Lions District 404 A3 organised medical outreach in Iperu and Sagamu.
The medical outreach enabled the people to know their true state of health as sugar level, blood pressure and other tests were conducted. Medical practitioners were also invited to educate the people on how they can avoid sudden deaths or sudden paralysis that creeps into their body system as a result of their lifestyles.
District Governor of Lions district 404, Lion Dr. Folasade Sotomide, in an interview, said her organization decided to use the opportunity of its Second Convention in Sagamu to touch lives in Remo.
“I’m sure you must have heard of people suddenly collapsing or becoming paralysed because of lack of awareness of their health situation. Some of these people may know they are not feeling well but they don’t know what is causing it, and so, they are not using the right medications. We all know that funds are scarce. To do a blood sugar test costs an amount that can feed two people. So, people will rather use the little money on them to feed rather than spending it at the hospital to do tests, not minding that any health situation left unattended to can lead to disability or death”, Lion Sotomide said.
She said since Lions is a community-based organization, they decided to make people in Sagamu and environs to feel their presence, hence the medical outreach.
Sotomide said: “Diabetes is a silent killer because many people don’t know they have it. But if you know you have it, on time, you can manage it with medications and diet control and still live and be useful to your family and the society for many more years.”
“The medical outreach will help people know their state of health, whether their blood pressure is high or not; whether their sugar level is high or low etc. We were able to educate people on how they can avoid sudden deaths by shunning some foods or lifestyles that can affect their health negatively”, Sotomide explained.
On why drugs were not provided at the medical outreach, Sotomide explained that anybody giving medication in any local government must first get an approval from the Health Board, which, apparently was not possible before the Lions’ meeting.
Sotomide said the outreach, which costs the Lions N500,000 was done in partnership with companies who supplied the test kits, strips and glucometer.
She said that apart from the medical outreach, Lions International has seven other global projects. “These include the one called Hunger where we give out foodstuffs to alleviate suffering in the community. We also have Youths. Here we train and take care of the youths and engage them in so many benefitting activities as we believe they are the leaders of tomorrow. We also take care of the environment. We believe our environment is key to us; and if there are potholes to be filled, we fill them. We do zebra crossings on busy roads for children and the elderly to cross the roads safely.”
“We also have Childhood Cancer. Cancer is a sickness nobody wants to have in the family. You can imagine what families are spending to keep a child having cancer alive and what the child is going through. The experience is traumatic. Many of the children having cancer have had to drop out of school. Our youths visit such children regularly to pray with them, beautify their environment and make them feel loved by enjoying the company of other people”, Sotomide said.
On the Lions’ Second Convention, she said the decisions taken at the meeting would equip Lions 404 to prepare for the year ahead. The meeting, she said, will enable them come up with the Memorandum of Understanding for the way forward.
