By Sunday Ani
The Rotary Club of Lagos, Festac Cosmopolitan has donated birth kits to some expectant mothers at the Amuwo Odofin Local Government secretariat in Festac.
Receiving the items, council chairman, Valentine Buraimoh, described the humanitarian gesture as life saving even as he added that it would go a long to solve health challenges in the area.
He expressed appreciation to the club and enjoined other associations of the same calibre to emulate the kind gesture.
President of the club, Uzoamaka Akaneme, said the club decided to make the donation, particularly to pregnant women, who are due for delivery, because most of them are low income earners, who might not be able to afford some of the birth kits.
“This is also to celebrate maternal and child health, which is celebrated by Rotary Club in this month of April,” she added.
About 25 pregnant women who were at the health centre for their antenatal care received the kits. The health centre also received two fetal Doppler machines used to check the heart beat of an unborn child from the Club.
Akaneme said items such as cotton wool, delivery blade, delivery pads and other materials were contained in the branded bag, which she said would also be useful to women as nursing mothers.
In his speech, the Project Director and Past Assistant Governor, Ik Ugwu, said the project would bring about reduction in maternal and child mortality, enhance safe and hygienic delivery, as well as alleviate poverty in the area.
He said the donation, which was to mark the Rotary celebration of maternal and child health, was equally a practical demonstration of the Club’s commitment to assist the Primary Health Centre to continue to provide quality care and services.
He promised that it would be a continuous project. “We will be praying for the mothers for safe delivery. We want the unborn child to know that even before he/she was born, there were people who were already caring and those people are the members of the Rotary Club of Lagos, Festac Cosmopolitan,” he said.