By Dotun Ibiwoye

In a bid to alleviate the plight of the internally displaced persons, IDPs, the Oasis Association will conduct tests and counsel about 200,000 people in Nigeria on various diseases and conditions.

Bama IDP Camp: Cross Section of women at Bama IDP Camp in Maiduguri during Minister’s Tour of Bama . Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Air Vice Marshal Olufemi Soewu (retd), President of the Oasis Association disclosed this at the their Annual General Meeting at Gasterof Restaurant, Grailland, while noting that there are over three million unofficial IDPs in the country.

According to Soewu, the 2016 outreach programme of the association will be in the health sector in collaboration with Rotary Club in September this year and will effectively sensitize, mobilize and engage the community to ensure significant participation in HIV Counselling and Testing. HCT.

“We had a health outreach in 2014 and it was very revealing. A lot of people were not even aware that they had diseases. We had the health outreach in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research. That gave us the impetus in doing it again this year.

“Last year and currently, the issue of IDPs was a major concern in the whole country. We reached out to IDPs of Borno state. We decided to go back to healthcare. Because of the economic hardship, a lot of people are not well-fed and cannot afford medical check-up.

“Before we embarked on the IDPs project, data research showed that officially, Nigeria will have about one million IDPs, but unofficially, there could be close to three million, if not more. We gave out 100 mattresses and the liaison officer of Borno IDPs considered our little effort great.

“She said that 10 people can sleep on one mattress. So I should never think that what we did was little. So, you can imagine the amount of people that would have benefited from the little effort.”