By Nnamdi Ojiego

A 2009 Batch B Corps member, Miss Ogechukwu Mama has put smiles in the faces of people of Achievers Community, Idi-Agbalumo, in Ota Local Govt Area of Ogun State, after embarking on a three-day free dental care in the area.

According to her, “this was part of my efforts to impact on the lives of my host community and as my Community Development Service, CDS of the NYSC scheme.” She disclosed that she was motivated to give dental care to the people because, she has been a victim of toothache and tooth decay and therefore, understood the pains people in similar situation were passing through.

Mama in action during one of her dental clinic days

“I chose dental because since my childhood I have been having dental problems which was more or less caused by poor oral hygiene, ignorance and negligence. As a matter of fact, I have removed two of my teeth in the past one year.

Mama, who is serving with DeReal Beverages Ota, said; “I decided to focus on rural people because, I found out that many of them have been suffering from toothache for a very long due to negligence or lack of money.

Many of them don’t have money to go for medical care. Some don’t even have access to medical facilities. So, I want to assist them, I want to help ameliorate their pains ”, she explained.

She revealed that she had planned to include free eyes treatment but for the paucity of fund, which was her major challenge, it was jettisoned. “At the initial stage, I wanted to give both dental and optical treatments to the people but to get money and sponsors to pay the medical personnel was not forth coming. So I decided to do only dental care, which I can afford with little help I got from people.”

Speaking further, the corps member said she also went to some nursery and primary schools in the area to educate the pupils on the need to maintain oral and physical hygiene such as brushing twice in a day, bathing regularly and keeping their environment neat always, amongst others, and distributed tooth brushes and tooth paste to the students.

NYSC prepares fresh graduates for the challenges aheadwhile advising fellow corps members to impact positively on lives of their hosts as that was the only way they could be fulfilled during their service year.