Ask The Paediatricians Foundation had a very successful 2019 Children’s Day Community Medical Outreaches in May/June 2019. For the first time we had these outreaches nation-wide. We did these outreaches in 35 communities in 33 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja. Most of our outreaches took place in carefully selected very indigent communities in each of the 33 States and FCT we reached out to.
We reached the highest number of children ever since our first outreach in 2016. It was also our first time of going nation-wide. We had our outreaches in almost all the states (33 out of 36) of the country. The feedback from the communities and the community leaders were quite amazing. At these outreaches which serves as our opportunity to celebrate the 2019 Children’s Day; 1450 ATP volunteers reached 17096 children nation-wide.The breakdown of each state with number of volunteers and the participants reached is attached.
We usually commenced each Community outreach with an opening ceremony where ATP was introduced to the Community. This was done in the local language at times in some communities. Health talk on Child health promotion including talks on Nutrition and Dental care was undertaken by our volunteer paediatricians and dentists.Opportunities were provided for questions and answers. Following this, the Children’s Day Cake was cut and the medical outreach commenced in earnest.
Our medical outreaches entailed registration followed by nutritional status assessment of the children. Mass deworming of all the children were also undertaken. All the children then proceed to see the Paediatricians and medical doctors and then the dentists. We also had Outreach laboratory service doing rapid malaria tests and in some states HIV and Hepatitis B screen. Following medical and dental consultations, the children proceed to the Pharmacy team where they received free drugs, mostly essential drugs. Children with conditions that could not be handled on the field were given referral letters to the closest hospitals.
In addition to the core components of the Outreach; the children also had fun celebrating children’s day at the same time. We gave lunch and refreshments to the participants. Clothes were also distributed in all locations by our Team Clothes and Souvenirs. All the children also shared out of the Outreach/Children’s Day Cakes. One of our supportive organization, Friesland Campina maker of Peak-456 were present at 22 locations and gave out nutritious milk drinks to the children and also shared free milk satchets to children aged 4 – 6 years old. There was also dancing competitions to encourage children to move and exercise regularly with winners receiving gifts. All the children were also given Free activity books on Nutrition courtesy of Peak456.
Many of the participants shared their experience of how the outreach has made a difference and would really love ATP to be back again in their states. The Community leaders gave their royal blessings and were visibly present and very grateful to have ATP outreach in the communities. One of the outreach picture was featured in a National Dailies. The Outreach in Ogun State was attended by the First Lady of Ogun State, Her Excellency Mrs Bamidele Abiodun at Ipara Remo in Ogun State. One of the Directors along with her team from Friesland Campina also witnessed many of the Outreaches. A team of consultants from Azao-conteil who were on ground courtesy of Facebook to do the social impact analysis of Ask The Paediatricians Foundation in Lagos also witnessed the Lagos-Oworo Outreach and did focus group discussions and individual interviews with many of our beneficiaries.
Our volunteers reported feeling quite fulfilled about the experience. All volunteers were given certificates. Most of the pictures and videos for each State have been uploaded to Albums on our Facebook Group. Since then we have experienced a surge of requests by many who will like to volunteer for our outreaches in the future.
The outreaches cost us over 10 million naira; a quarter of which were raised here on Global Giving. The rest were raised via generous direct donations of Ask The Paediatricians Foundation members and volunteers, partly also Facebook FCLP grant. ATP is grateful to all our donors on and off global giving which make these outreaches possible. We are grateful to Facebook for supporting the Outreaches partially through the FCLP grant and Friesland campina for support in cash and kind as well through their generous donations of books and gifts for the children. We are grateful to all the pharmaceutical companies in Lagos and other states who donated their products as well.
Ask The paediatricians Foundation looks forward to impacting more children in Nigeria come October when our next set of community medical outreaches would be taken place.