Destiny Trust, Funmi Alakija Foundation take free healthcare to homeless children

A medical outreach tagged ‘Hands of Care’, organised by Destiny Trust with partnership from Funmi Alakija Foundation, has provided free healthcare to 218 homeless children at a slum on the Elegushi beachfront in Lekki, Lagos State. Also, 1,000 packs of personal hygiene materials were distributed to hundreds of homeless children and families that turned up at the temporary Point of Care set up in the area at the weekend.

The initiative was supported by Wellahealth, a health technology solutions company; Doctoora Health, short-term healthcare facility provider and Sanitary Aid NG, non-profit firm providing free sanitary materials to disadvantaged young people.

Co-founder of Destiny Trust, Abimbola Ojenike, said: “The Hands of Care outreach is an intervention to promote the health of homeless children who can hardly access healthcare services. The wellbeing of these children is at the heart of our work of educating, empowering and caring for them. We believe that no child should be held back in life by the scourge of disease.”

While highlighting the urgency for a broad-based approach to address the healthcare challenges of the urban poor children, he added that “short-term health interventions only bring a respite to those who desperately need healthcare. Homeless children who live in squalor on the streets and slums would require a more integrated and sustained intervention. This should include addressing the challenges of homelessness and empowering poor households to take care of the children.

“In the short term, we are expanding the capacity of our in-centre care programmes for homeless children and lending our voice to the development of inclusive communities where the children of the urban poor can live, thrive and participate in the social and economic system of their country”.