Foundation offers free medical care to 1, 000 patients in Zaria

A non -governmental organisation, Waziri Foundation on Sunday offered free medical care to cover over 1, 000 patients suffering from different ailments in Zaria, Kaduna state.

Its founder, Dr. Aliyu Dahiru-Waziri, who is also a consultant at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, made the disclosure in an interview with journalists in Zaria.

Dahiru-Waziri spoke on the sideline of the exercise held at Bello Aliyu Primary School, Kofar Doka, Zaria.

He said: “Our target is to treat more than a thousand today and to also do free genotype test for more than 100 people and after the genotype testing, we will follow it up with counselling, so that we tell them the implication of even having the sickle cell gene in them.

“This is a community outreach, which we try to organise in order to reach out to indigent patients whom we know that genuinely cannot afford some medical drugs.

“Also, some cannot genuinely even transport themselves to health facilities, so, we prefer taking the healthcare facility to them to be able to make diagnosis and treat them appropriately.”

The medical practitioner said the focus is on patients suffering from all forms of sicknesses, ranging from hypertension, diabetes, malaria among others.

Dahiru-Waziri said the exercise gave special attention to those suffering from sickle cell.

“We gave them special treatment with medications and everything, and for those patients we cannot treat at this point, we referred them to the nearest health facility for them to get the best of treatment,” he said.

He said the foundation is primarily established to look into the issues of health and education in the society with a view to complementing government efforts in ameliorating some of the challenges.

Set goals to become landlords before 40, expert advises youths

According to him, the ultimate goal of the foundation is to ensure that people get the necessary care to live healthy lives and pursue their daily activities.

On education, he said the foundation is stepping efforts to reduce the illiteracy level especially in Northern Nigeria, adding that “that’s why we are also involved in other activities like quiz competition, debate and public lectures and other related areas.

“Our hope and aspiration is to extend the gesture to other areas, however, our main problem is finance, as you can see, the programme we are holding today didn’t happen just like that.

“It occurred as a result of the collaboration with various quarters, including the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) who donated some drugs.

“We also have Frontier Hospital, Kaduna, Sickle Cell Foundation, Sickle Cell Aid and Ahmadu Bello University Medical Students Association. They all came together, assisted us in making sure the programme is successful.”