• Problematic pregnancy motivated exercise — Kennedy, Corps member

By Caleb Ayansina

In Kuchingoro, on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, poverty stares the villagers on the face.

Health facilities among other basic amenities are lacking in spite of the villagers closeness to the nation’s capital.

Succour came their way when over 1,000 of the villagers received free treatment from a team of doctors on diseases which had sent many to the grave.

The gesture came courtesy of a National Youth Service Corps member serving at the National Assembly Dental Clinic, Abuja, Dr Omanudhowho Kennedy (FCT/14B/4578).

Kennedy, a dental surgeon from the University of Benin, told Sunday Vanguard what  ignited his interest in the provision of the medical service for the villagers.

His words: “While I was in school, I had the privilege to travel to one community in Bayelsa State that neither had clinic or health center. One of the cases I saw was a woman carrying six months pregnancy but had the problem of lump excision.

“I was disturbed, but I was not equipped enough to take care of her condition as a pregnant woman, she was in tears and I was touched. Since then, I vowed that anywhere I found myself, I should be able to locate a rural environment and try to help. That is the inspiration behind the project.

“The project is in two phases. On May 20, 2015, we gave 56 wheelchairs to physically challenged persons in the FCT. Now, we are doing the second phase which is one-week free treatment.  We did 50 surgeries requiring anesthesia hernia repairs, appendectomy, fibroid, lump excision among others. I have some corps members from Jos, Benue, FCT and Edo assisting in the project .

“We also believe it should be a whole package. There are some people that don’t need drugs, all they need is counselling. Based on this, we have the counselling section to help them.”

On the challenges, Kennedy said: “The first phase was a bit easier because we had an international donor which provided the wheelchairs, but the second phase is a bit difficult. There is this mentality that a young person cannot do thing out of compassion and love; if you are embarking on this kind of project, some people will be saying he has ulterior motive.

“Getting fund was really difficult, but I thank God we were able to get some well-meaning Nigerians to help. For the surgery, we are targeting 50, for other cases, we are targeting 1,000 for now.”

In his remarks, the Director General of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, called on  individuals and corporate bodies to identify with the scheme by sponsoring  community development projects of corps members.

Olawumi said such support became imperative so that development could trickle down to rural dwellers, who are about 70 percent of the country’s population.

Represented by the NYSC Director of CDS and Special Projects, Mrs Bose Okakwu, the DG explained that NYSC community projects were geared towards improving the standard of living of Nigerians at the grassroots, and, therefore, must be supported. Olawumi noted that attacks on corps members would not be taken lightly, calling on “host communities to provide security and welfare needs for corps members to enable them give their best.”

The NYSC FCT Coordinator, Pastor Alao Olanipekun, described the project as “a demonstration of the FCT NYSC capacity and availability as a tool to affect and effect change at the basic levels of the economy.”