KEY POINTS
- Over 250 children in Makoko benefit from free healthcare service from TNCI.
- It lays emphasis on preventive care, hygiene and things like health education.
- TNCI is also looking for more government support to scale up the impact on more children.
As a part of their annual outreach program, the Neo Child Initiative for Africa (TNCI) has taken free healthcare to over 250 children in Makoko, Lagos State of Nigeria.
However, the initiative focused on children and teenagers in the age bracket 0 – 17 and intended to offer critical medical services to fight health and sanitation problems in the community.
Malaria screenings, dental consultations, immunizations, deworming, nutritional assessments, and health education were services provided. It also distributed free medication related to issues raised in a baseline survey carried out earlier this year.
TNCI brings healthcare to Makoko’s under served children
Esther Nwaiwu, a Senior Programme Coordinator at TNCI highlighted the long term nature of the programme. Our goal is to make sure that these children prospered despite the environment.”
‘We will come back in three months, measure our progress, and we will not stop, ours is not a one off effort,” she said, adding that collaborations with the Lagos Mainland Primary Health Care Center, as well as the Yaba LCDA, for those continuing care would be put in place.
Preventing health care and community impact
According to Eunice Adeyeye, TNCI’s Assistant Health Lead, stated that the program primarily aims to prevent such occurrences
We live by ‘Our Today for Their Tomorrow’ our slogan to ensure vaccinations, dental cleaning and health education remains a priority. And she said, ‘We’re preparing all of these children so that they can grow up healthy and ready to meet global standards.’”
But residents reacted to the initiative with gratitude, and one resident mother underlined that ‘This program has minimized the number of days that my children fall sick. I’m so thankful for that support.”
‘With more support, it could take TNCI to over 1,000 children, no child in Makoko left behind,’ calling for government collaboration,’ stressed Nwaiwu.
