The commercial city of Aba last week witnessed the launch of a free Community Health Fair, with the royal father, His Imperial Majesty, Eze Isaac Ikonne, Enyi 1of Aba, flagging off the first free medical/health series in the ancient city.
The monarch described the community health programme as “one of a kind” and commended the facilitators of the programme, Victor Chinedu Egbulefu Foundation (VCEF), an NGO, for driving such a welfarist programme aimed at complementing the efforts of the Abia State government in healthcare delivering.
The NGO’s team of volunteer health workers gave free medical treatment to hypertension, diabetes and ulcer patients and also attended to other patients with infectious diseases.
The facilitator of the outreach, Dr. Victor Egbulefu, a United States-based pharmacist, said the programme would be run in phases and was planned to reach all rural and urban communities in Abia State.
According to him, the objective is to complement government’s efforts in health care delivery and to save the lives of people that cannot access government facilities: “This is why we have to move from community to community to reach the people in their domains.”
Egbulefu further disclosed that the NGO plans to embark on other social and community engagement outreach, including youth empowerment and educational development programmes among others.
A special guest at the function, director-general of Abia State Orientation Agency (ABSOA), Hon. Godwin Adindu, said, with the launch and debut of the Community Health Fair, succour has come the way of the downtrodden in the communities who lack the wherewithal for appropriate medical attention.
He commended the NGO for their patriotic gesture adding that the initiator of the fair has demonstrated that he is a lover of his state and countrymen. “Egbulefu has shown that he is a patriot. Such interventions are what we require from our people in the Diaspora,” he affirmed.