In a bid to provide essential healthcare services and awareness to its immediate community, Covenant University Postgraduate Student Council (CUPGSC) in partnership with Beulah World Initiative (BWI), Covenant Applied Informatics and Communicate Africa Centre of Excellent (CApICE-ACE) and Covenant University Community Development Impact Initiatives Committee (CU-CIDC) organized medical outreach for the community.
The event held at the weekend at the PG hall, Covenant University, was tagged ‘Aspire 8.0 Medical Outreach 2025,’ with services which include health talk, Prostate/Breast Cancer and Malaria Awareness/Screening, general medical consultation, medical tests and treatment, eye test, treatment and distribution of glasses.
The Center Leader, CApICE-ACE, Covenant University, Prof. Emeka Iweala, said the outreach is aimed at sharing knowledge and information about critical health situations in the community, especially Malaria, Breast and Prostate Cancer which also happen to be the core research areas of CApIC-ACE.
“Another critical reason for this outreach is to get people screened on these health conditions, so that people can know their status and then know the next thing to do. Whether to go and see a doctor or the measures to take to remain negative if they are screened negative.”
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He explained that the center supports postgraduate students of the University, hence the support for the outreach which he said will go a long way to help students in their research as well as educate them on health awareness.
“PG students are very critical components of the university, and secondly, they are active researchers; most of them are conducting researches in this area and they need to understand this diseases and also have access to samples for their research.
“We are always ready to help in researches and so we conduct our researches to see how there can be improvement on in diagnosis, treatment and management of these ailments.
“So our center is happy to be part of this programme because one, we are supporting Postgraduate students, two, we are doing research on prostate cancer, breast cancer and malaria and thirdly, one of our key activities in the center is outreach and whenever there is outreach, our center is interested in supporting because it goes a long way in helping to share information, critical health information that the community will require to stay healthy.”
Talking on ways to create more awareness and information on cancer which according to him, is increasing daily among Nigerians, Prof. Iweala advised on the need for Nigerians to get accurate information concerning these diseases especially Prostate for men and breast cancer for female.
“If they have information regarding the causes of these cancer, prevention, treatment and also if they get screened, they’ll know what to do. So it’s important that the Nigerian community tries to access this critical information so that they can understand the diseases and if per chance they experience one or two symptoms associated with these diseases, they can quickly go to their Medical Doctors and receive further advice,” he explained.
He encouraged Nigerians at every opportunity they have to ensure that they participate in screening programmes so that they can know their status as far as breast or prostate cancer is concerned as this will help in early detection and treatment.
He disclosed that feedback is quite encouraging and this motivates the center to do more and will continue to organize and support this type of outreaches so that communities will have information on health related matters like cancer, malaria and be able to take control of their health and live more healthy lives and productive lives.
The Coordinator, Beulah World Initiative, Nigeria, Ms Chichi Ononiwu, said BWI is dedicated to promoting physical, mental, social and emotional well-being of Nigerians and will always be in support of outreaches like this to alleviate the burden of health maintenance of communities.
“We are a health based organization; we have a passion for building healthy communities, where people can be aware of the need to actually live healthy and because of that, we hold monthly medical outreaches in rural communities across Nigeria. We’ve done a lot, especially in the west, but we’re moving gradually towards the south.
She disclosed that BWI has had about 120 outreaches since inception and also collaborate with people who are doing the same thing in the area of health, which is why they have done a number of outreaches with big organizations like CApIC-ACE, the Covenant University Community Development Initiatives Committee and others.
Talking on the vision of the organisation, Ms Ononiwu said the organisation is all out to support communities in terms of primary healthcare outreaches and had been to several communities, majority of them being in the Western part of the Country.
“This is what we are called to do and we can’t wait to be able to do more; to be able to spread the reach to more communities, especially, the East, South-South and the North. Our vision is to be able to touch the whole of Africa but we are starting from Nigeria.”
She said Nigerians should be conscious of their health especially in the area of lifestyle as this is the major solution to curb and reduce endemic diseases like diabetes, cancer and others to the barest minimum.
“The basic advice is that the world is moving away from just taking drugs to preventive medicine. Like doing everything you can not to even have medical issues in the first place and one of those things is basically centered around lifestyle, diet, exercise, staying hydrated and lots more,” she added.
Dr. Lola Adebanjo of CU Health Center in her remarks said the main objective of the outreach is to create awareness as regards cancers and malaria because this is very rampant in the society, claiming a lot of lives, causing a lot of damages. “So we came to give a talk to see how people can be more aware of this condition and all that we can do to reduce the prevalence of this disease among our society.”
Speaking on the impact of health outreaches to the community, Dr. Adebanjo said there are always different awareness programmes, depending on the target population of the time, “However, today, we are bringing it closer to our own community because the Postgraduate students are amongst our community and they are very important to us as well.
“So we’re seeing how we can create this awareness amongst them so that they can take the necessary measures to improve their health and the overall population at large.”
It is important for every Nigerian to be aware that the issue of cancer is now common hence the need for this talk, it has become more common than the past generations and we want people to be responsible, be aware of this and early detection is the key.
She advised on the need for Nigerians to understand that cancer has become prevalent in the country and the need for them to take precautions on certain lifestyles they are used to. “Men should stay away from smoking as much as they can and for female self-examination of the breast is very important so as to know if there is any abnormality.
Speaking at the event, Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Covenant University, Professor Conrad Omohinmi commended the collaborators for the support given to the Postgraduate school on the outreach, adding that it will go a long way to improve the health awareness of the community and as well help in researches for postgraduate students of the university.
The Chairman, CU PG Student Council, Theophilus Nang Wakai said Aspire 8.0 medical outreach is part of the creative engagement of Postgraduate students.
He said the outreach is aimed at reaching out to PG students, sensitizing them about common ailments plaguing the community like malaria, and cancer.
He disclosed that there are over 600 students in the PG school but the target is 300 but with the turnout today, the number may increase.
Thanking the sponsors of the programme, Wakai said the outreach is not a one off thing and they can’t actually intervene in all the problems health wise but this is just to show that they are concerned.
“These sponsors have concern for them and are advising them to go on and take care of their health; they should not only focus on outreaches like this. They should also make use of the medical facilities that are in our community like the Covenant University Medical Center and other health centers wherever they find themselves.
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