16/09/2018
The Itsuokor foundation recently concluded a three-day medical outreach in Ogbona. We attended to over 5,000 people from five villages around the area. The foundation brought five medical consultants from the UK of varying specialties to treat different illnesses. They also donated several medical equipments ranging from ECG machines, patients monitors, eye glasses, laboratory test materials to a generator that came in towards the end of the program.
During our stay, we noticed that hypertension is the most common illness in the community. The Itsuokor foundation has decided to fund a research and look at the cause of this illness in the community.
The Itsuokor foundation was set up early this year to cater for the healthcare of the underprivileged in rural Nigeria. On my recent travel to Nigeria – I saw the appalling state of the community hospitals. It was very bad. There were no drugs, no equipments and the laboratory services were overwhelmed. A lot of patients die needlessly. It was these needless deaths that drove me to set up this charity and move on a grand scale.
The Itsuokor foundation started in the UK and we have worked with the local Milton Keynes community to keep lives safe by donating CCTV to local individuals to protect them from criminals. The pictures of these can be found in the Brookland community page.
We have also donated wheelchairs and clothes to a local hospice in Milton Keynes e.g. the Willems hospice. we have also offered scholarships to two deserving students in uk and in nigeria
In Nigeria, we played a small role in detecting AF in asymptomatic patients and helping fund their treatment. This was done as a pilot programme in late April this year.
We reached out to hearts and minds – a UK charity concern that is donating a hybrid solar generator to the communities and the Technomed UK to donate ECGS.
I am Dr. Benedict Itsuokor, a stroke consultant in the UK. I am also the head of a doctor’s advocacy group in the United Kingdom. I was trained in Nigeria and I am giving back to the community the little I have. I have gathered five medical consultants from the UK and 15 local doctors to work for me on this project.
This is being done solely on basis of helping humanity. The two foreign donors accompanied me throughout the outreach so as to learn from it. This is a big experience for me bearing in mind that I have not been to Nigeria for a long time.
We covered 3 areas in Nigeria – MCK Orbih health center, Ogbona, Edo state, Ita Elewa health center, Ikorodu in Lagos state and Agodi health center, Ibadan. We had to postpone Abuja due to poor logistics. We, however, promised to come back in 3 months
Our strategy was the same in all three locations. We donated drugs, medical equipments, and a generator to only one location – Ogbona.
We spent three days in Ogbona. We attended to patients of all age group. We left the pharmacy a sea of drugs as you can see from the photos below. There was a huge turnout on the first day and the medical personnel were overwhelmed. We were supported by other local groups – the Dako foundation, mrs flora edomende of edosaca and Dr. Abu Paulinus who performed some operation. the groundwork was down by OEF
We arranged follow up with Dr. Oyakhilomeh. We also intend to follow up with the severe hypertension cases.
It pleased me to see smiles in these faces.
