School Organises Public Health Sensitisation, Offers Free Medical Tests

In a bid to ensure that more people especially women are better informed on basic health issues, which is key to healthy living, Joytoria Schools in collaboration with Rovina Diagnostic centre organised a one day public health sensitisation programme which had over 150 beneficiaries in attendance.

The event, which took place at the school premises, at Ijegun Imore, Satellite town had free malaria and Typhoid tests, Blood sugar level test, Hepatitis B, Blood pressure check, Body Mass Index (BMI) tests and scan for pregnant women.

According to the Director, Joytoria schools, Ms. Joy Ogbonnaya, said that seeing people in the community die from preventable disease led to the sensitisation programme. “Recently, we lost a mother in our school and her baby; the baby died of Jaundice and that got at us because we feel that Jaundice is not something that children should die of, if mothers have good knowledge of what they should look out for. We however concluded that the baby died of ignorance and so we decided to use this as an opportunity to sensitise women especially because we believe that women play a vital role in keeping a family healthy.”

Although this is the first time the school is organising such programme, Ms. Ogbonnaya noted that the school is looking forward to doing something regular for women, “they need to have a good knowledge of their reproductive and mental health; a lot of women are suffering from depression, they go through stress, they are not able to express themselves.

“We are a socially responsible school, we don’t want to over look certain things, we don’t just want to collect our school fees and walk away; we want to make sure our community is better because our school is in that community,” she added.

Health educator and nurse, Mrs. Ndidi Emenike, who spoke to the beneficiaries said that it is important to sensitise these women more especially to save lives, “an informed person will not do anything that is detrimental to their health, when you give people the right information, it abates preventable diseases.

She also noted that breast, cervical and canal cancers are key areas, which women should be enlightened because of the rate at which cancer has taken lives. “A lot of us are not well informed about the disease, while some think it is ritual inclined others think its religion based, but the right information will enable people know that there are lifestyles that makes one susceptible to cancer especially people, who are genetically inclined to having cancer and so they should be aware of habits like smoking which is detrimental to the health.

“Processed foods are prone to being cancerous to our health too because of the preservatives used and so it is necessary for us to go back to our natural habit of eating; we are blessed in Nigeria with a lot of natural foods around us and so we should eat right especially foods that are rich in vegetables. We must also include exercises to help fight cancer-forming agents found around our environment. When we add exercises to eating right, then it reduces the way at which cancer attacks the society.”