By Young E. Freeborn, Warri
Indigenes and residents of Usiefrun community, in Ughievwen kingdom, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State received relief from various health challenges as a non-governmental organisation, the Prince Oghenerukevwe Okifo Foundation (POOF), organized a free medical outreach in the community recently.
The medical outreach which covered general body test, tests for blood pressure, sugar level, malaria and other medical services, took place done at the Usiefrun community town hall, and catered for children, youths and the elderly in the community.
Addressing newsmen before the programme began, secretary of the foundation, Hon. Desmond Okpako, who stood in for the chairman/CEO of the foundation, Prince Oghenerukevwe Okifo, said the sole aim of the foundation is to reach out to the less privileged and the poor in the various communities across Delta State in particular and Nigeria in general, in areas of health, education and skills acquisition.
Hear him: “The Prince Oghenerukevwe Okifo Foundation has been organizing this free medical outreach from community to community across Delta State. This is not the first one the foundation has organized.
“The major objective of the foundation is to bring medical services freely to the door posts of our people especially the less privileged ones and the poor masses in our different communities. We discovered that so many of our people especially the elderly and the children are suffering from different health challenges on daily basis.
“But many have no access to good medical services in the hospitals or health centres, probably because of financial constraints on their parts and also as a result of failed governments in the state and the country. This is why the foundation decided to organize this free medical outreach across the state. It’s a golden opportunity for our people to bounce back to good health.”
When asked if the free medical outreach was politically motivated given that the country is preparing for another round of general elections by 2023, the secretary of foundation, Hon. Okpako said the free medical programme has nothing to do with politics but was purely organized as a humanitarian and philanthropic gesture to the people. He therefore called on Usiefrun people to avail themselves of the medical services provided.
In appreciation to the management team of the Prince Oghenerukevwe Okifo Foundation (POOF) and the medical crew, beneficiaries of the medical outreach thanked the chairman/CEO of the foundation for having such a great vision and also making available human and financial resources for the foundation to run effectively.
They also thanked the medical crew, led by Dr. Brai Brian, for taking care of their health challenges effectively, but called on Delta politicians and wealthy persons in Urhobo land to emulate the young Urhobo man, Prince Oghenerukevwe Okifo “who is spending his hard earned money to provide his people with good health care.”
The outreach ended with the presentation of free drugs and treatment to beneficiaries that numbered over one hundred.