By Enitan Abdultawab

The Cardio Health, a health organization on Saturday visited the Aiyetoro area of Makoko to offer the residents free medical services.

The organization, with its team of young, brilliant medical experts, sets out to educate residents of this area in line with their mission to raise awareness and sensitization so as to bridge the gap between people and their heart health.

The free medical outreach features a registration process, screenings for blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), blood sugar levels, a mini-consultation session amongst other vitals. In addition, patients in attendance were handed some essentials such as food ingredients, pieces of clothing, bags, and other accessories that they can make use of in their households.

Speaking on the outreach, Ifeoluwa Oyewole, the founder and convener of Cardio Health, said, “We have taken it upon ourselves to sensitive people about what cardiovascular health is – stroke, hypertension and high blood pressure. We are on a mission to reduce death rate, and for the next ten years, maybe people do not longer die of cardiovascular ill-health. We are targeting over five hundred people here, in line with other major cities such as Ibadan, Benin where this same outreach by our organization is holding.”

She added that a lot of people walk about on streets without realizing how much of complications of some cardiovascular diseases that they are risking. This, she noted, is due to the fact that cardio-related diseases do not show any symptoms but would definitely be obvious in complications as a person might have blurry vision, consistent fatigue and headache amongst others.

In commemoration of the organization’s two years anniversary, she added that the organization had chosen to extend its outreach to this community specifically ranging from an obvious lack of literacy to an inadequate exposure to health awareness. Consequently, she believes that residents of the area would be more impacted than residents of areas who have some health education.

Rufai Gabriel, LUTH ambassador for The Cardio Health, noted that the outreach was possible due to prior interaction with some locals of the residence, including some health workers of the residence.

‘We have met with people of the community, the local Iyaloja, health workers and discussed our initiatives. Right now, we have covered over a hundred people. In this part of the country, a lot of people need to know that cardiovascular diseases are in a large variety, and they need to watch what they eat, how they relate with their systems. Now, we have told them all risk factors for different cardiovascular diseases.’

One of the locals, Ayomide Olashile (Innocent), echoed the gratitude of the residence to the organization, revealing how the outreach gladdened the community. “One could see how some old women were happy when we told them Cardio Health were coming. And we are very glad that they came. This is Aiyetoro community where these women do not have money to take good care of their bodies, thus, we are very glad.”