Residents of a Lagos slum community in Lafiaji, situated along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway on Wednesday benefited from a one-day medical outreach organised by Vital Health International in partnership with RCCG City of David, Atlanta (USA) and RCCG The Oasis, Lekki.
The community made up of shanties, is the abode of many low income earners working on the Island.
Dr Joe Tarkon, the senior pastor of RCCG City of David in Atlanta, USA and also the Chief Executive Officer of Vital Health International, led the mission to the community in collaboration with the The Oasis’s parish of the RCCG.
The medical outreach included general consultation, pharmacy and medication dispensing, medical referral where necessary, health education and spiritual support.
Earlier, the team comprising doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other support volunteers paid a visit to the Baale of Lafiaji, Chief Wasiu Alli-Balogun, who welcomed them and wished them well during the outreach.
About ten doctors saw patients after which they were given medications.
Visioner of the outreach, Dr Tarkon says he feels impressed with the turnout.
He said: “I’m very impressed. We find a sense of fulfillment to be able to contribute meaningfully to the health status and the health condition of the people that we see. I’m impressed, because I see mothers with children and some young folks and all of that.”
He said the choice of the community was deliberate because it is populated by the less privileged members of the society.
“We want to treat, we want to serve underprivileged communities. People who live here are underrepresented by medical facilities. Driving here, I saw only one or two small clinics around. So, for a large community like this, where you don’t have medical services, this is the best place for us.
“And of course, we saw patients who are not likely to go to the hospital. There was a woman her blood pressure was 160 over 101. And her sugar was 212, and that’s fasting blood sugar because she has not eaten all day. She could collapse and they will say demons have killed her. So, these are the kind of places we like to be.”
