By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
The Rotary Club of Anthony Golden, Lagos. has taken humanitarian service to Mende, Maryland. Its president, Adejimi Babatunde-Olubanjo, said: “We have mapped out a substantial amount of money in the current rotary year, to tackle disease prevention and treatment, especially for the indigent Nigerians just to impact lives.
“This is part of the ‘Project on healthy living,’ we believe good health care is everyone’s right. Yet 400 million people in the world can’t afford or don’t have access to basic health care.
“Disease results in misery, pain, and poverty for millions of people worldwide. That’s why treating and preventing disease is so important to us. We lead efforts both large and small. We set up temporary clinics, blood donation centers, and training facilities in underserved communities struggling with outbreaks and health care access. We design and build infrastructure that allows doctors, patients, and governments to work together.”
He added that every year rotary members, across the globe combat diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and polio. “Prevention is important, which is why we also focus on health education and bringing people routine hearing, vision, and dental care.
“We educate and equip communities to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases. Rotary members have hundreds of health projects underway around the world at any given time and our top priority is the eradication of polio, but we have taken it further as our responsibilities to fight disease cause of the needs in the society.
“We set up health camps and training facilities in undeveloped countries and in communities struggling with HIV/AIDS and malaria.
We also design and build the infrastructure for health practitioners to partner with us to save lives.
“The health and vitality of a person, a family and a community can be seriously impaired by what in many cases is a preventable disease. Disease prevention is really a keystone to progress in other areas as well because of the interplay with other areas of focus like Water and Sanitation and Maternal & Child Health.
“Disease prevention and treatment takes on many forms, from supporting studies to helping immunize people to improving drinking water and the sanitation infrastructure. The world relies on Rotary to tackle these global challenges, and to set an example for others to follow that is we as a club in the rotary family have to carry out this event.”
