By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA – THE Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory,FCT, in partnership with a pharmaceutical company, Biomedical Limited, has commenced mass deworming exercise for over 16,800 school pupils.

The exercise which targets children of between two and five years, will also be extended to 12 states of the federation, according to the pharmaceutical company.

Speaking at the flag off of the programme in Kwali on Thursday,

the Marketing Manager of Biomedical, Watson Olojo,said the deworming exercise was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility,designed to mark its 40 years of existence.

He said the objective was to deworm children in order to provide nutrients “that is required for their physical, mental growth and performance in schools.”

“This programme is targeted for 16,800 doses of anti-worm drugs in Kwali Area Council. There is a particular age group that is being targeted and that is between two to  five years of school based pupils.

“I can tell you that one of the things we really recognised for Biomedical Limited is the fact that we have transformed from lifesavers to live in infancy company and the school based deworming is just one of them,”he said.

“The other ones are the the visits to the orphanages where we attend to orphans and then in our communities, especially communities in poorer states.”

“This is what we are going to be doing in 12 states and this is the fourth state we are implementing this. Our target here is 16, 800 school pupils,”he said.

Speaking further,he said the company was looking at 450,000 children across the 12 states to benefit from the exercise.

The Etsu of Kwali, Alhaji Shaban Audu Nizazo III, who was represented at the event by Chief Victor Obashono,said

the programme was a wonderful one that will go a long way in providing the necessary nutrients for the children.

He commended Biomedical Limited for the gesture.

“It is going to improve the health status of children in the sense that health is wealth and a healthy child is going to produce a healthy knowledge so it is going to help them a lot,” he said.

On her part, the representative of the FCT Primary Healthcare, Aisha Bello commended Biomedical for embarking on the the programme.

“Basically, it is supposed to eliminate worms in children between 12 to 59 months so that they can grow well, so that it will reduce incidences of malnutrition.

” We are very grateful to Biomedical and we appreciate their support because we are looking for partners to support the FCT primary health care in this intervention.

“Normally, it is recommended by WHO that twice in a year, a child of 12 to 59 months should take doses of deworming tablets.

“The issue of malnutrition is a multi-sectoral problem, so we need to approach it multi-sectorally. We need people coming from different sectors to support us, so we are happy they chosed to do this as a means of celebrating their 40th anniversary,” she said.