By Philip Yatai

The Al-Ihsan Foundation, on Sunday, provided free medical services to 500 men, women and children in Kaduna, under its Medical Outreach programme.

The Chairperson of the programme, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the event, that the goal was to render service to humanity by giving back to the society.

Muhammad-Idris explained that the outreach programme was carried out in collaboration with the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Kaduna State Branch, whose slogan is “Heal with the Love of a Mother”.

According to her, the move is to touch the lives of the people, particularly the people in communities who cannot afford basic healthcare services.

“So, today we are providing basic healthcare services to people from various communities in Kaduna metropolis, particularly children, women, pregnant women, men and the elderly.

“We are screening people for high blood pressure, sugar level for diabetes, Rapid Diagnostic Test for malaria and urinalysis for protein to manage a wide range of disorders.

“We are also providing Pap smear screening for cervical cancer and other cancerous diseases for women of reproductive age, including therapies among other basic healthcare services.

“We equally sensitised the beneficiaries on Lassa fever and Coronavirus disease during our health talk to educate people on how they can prevent themselves from getting infected and the signs to look out for,” she said.

She added that those found with serious health issues would be referred to appropriate health centres for further management and attention.

Also speaking, the President of the foundation, Aisha Mujaddadi, described the outreach programme as a “service to humanity’’, that impact on the lives of people at the lower levels of the society.

Mujaddadi said that the outreach was second in the series of many more health-related services that would be rolled out to the people who cannot afford basic healthcare services and other necessities of life.

“Health is one area that people are in dire need of support, as you can see from the turn out, men, children, women, pregnant women, including the aged have come to get health services.

“We are looking forward to partnering with other organisations like MWAN to continue to reach out to people in communities with life-changing services that would improve their quality of life,” she said.

The president explained that the medical outreach was the foundation’s programme outlined for the first quarter among other people-oriented programmes planned for 2020.

She added that in the second quarter, the foundation would hold Ramadan Lecture to remind the Muslim Ummah on how to conduct themselves as Allah has commanded.

“We will also hold Ramadan Gesture to feed people or donate food items to them. In 2019 we reached out to about 1000. We hope to do more this year.

“Our plan for the third quarter is hospital and prison visitations, while we hope to sink boreholes in communities in dire need of clean water,” she said.

On her part, Dr Hassana Yakasai, the Assistant Secretary, MWAN, Kaduna branch, said that the collaboration with Al-Ihsan Foundation was borne out of a collective and mutual concern to provide healthcare services to the poor in communities.

She said that the association would continue to partner with government agencies and other organisations to reach out to people in need of medical services.

NAN reports that some of the beneficiaries described the gesture as “timely and commendable’’ and called on other organisations to emulate the life-saving gesture of the two organisations, Al-Ihsan Foundation and Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Kaduna branch.

One of them, Hafsat Idris told NAN that she hardly goes to the hospital because she cannot afford the bills, adding that the medical outreach programme provides people like her the needed medical services.

“We pray that there are more people and organisations out there that will remember people like us and find a way of reaching out to us with medical services at no cost,” she said.

Malam Liman Adamu, another beneficiary, thanked the two organisations for recognising that people are in need of medical attention in communities, but could not make it to the hospital.

Adamu said that the world would be a better place if able people and organisations would learn to give a helping hand to those in need.