THE International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education (ICICE) has offered free medical treatment to over 700 indigent women, children and the elderly in Karmo, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the centre is the custodian of Al-Noor Mosque, Abuja.
Addressing newsman during the exercise, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, Chairman of the Medical Outreach Committee, said most of the beneficiaries have illnesses that are easily treatable, but lack access to healthcare.
“We have been doing this free medical outreach regularly until the time when we had the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and we had to slow down.
“During this month of ramadan this is our second outing. This is a community which deserves medical care, a lot of them have illnesses that are easily treatable, but unfortunately they have no access to healthcare.
“We are here to help where we can and people have come out in large numbers and our volunteer doctors, nurses and others are ready to help.
“We are going to be here until we see everyone who has a complain,” he added.
Ibrahim, who is also a member of the Advisory Board of ICICE, said those with serious medical challenges would be referred to appropriate health facilities under the sponsorship of the centre.
“It is very important for communities and organisations like ours to go out to help people in need, to complement government efforts,” he added.
The centre’s Director-General, Dr Kabir Kabo-Usman, said the over 700 people who turned up included persons with disabilities.
He explained that Karmo was chosen based on need assessment earlier conducted by the centre, in line with its mandate of offering assistance in the areas of poverty reduction and healthcare.
“These people don’t have adequate drinking water, they don’t have good roads and they don’t have good schools.
“We are doing our best to give them all the necessary medical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and relevant medication and medicaments that they require.
“Not only that, we also make sure that they are referred to general hospitals, and those that are tremendously urgent, the centre takes care of that; that is part of our responsibility,” Kabo-Usman added.
Head of the Medical Team, Dr Amina Kumaliya, said most of those attended to were hypertensive and diabetic, while some have malaria, peptic ulcer, respiratory tract infection and diarrhea.
“We saw one patient that has hernia. So we intend to help the patient to do follow up and if there is any need of surgery.
“We also saw one that has breast tumor which we will also inform the management of the ICICE so that we can follow up the patient to a tertiary hospital to take care of it,” she said.
The Head of Hausa community in Karmo, Malam Bashir Musa, expressed gratitude to the ICICE for the gesture.
“The free medical assistance to the community is the first of its kind, we have never received this kind of medical assistance, that is why you see the large turn out of people,” Musa said.
NAN