The National Association of Seadogs (NAS), also known as Pyrates Confraternity, began a medical outreach in Shen, a Plateau community on Saturday to provide treatment for indigent patients.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the medical outreach focused on creating awareness, treating malaria and managing hypertension, and diabetes.
The Plateau chapter vice-president of NAS, Mr Victor Nsunwara, said the gesture was part of the association’s resolve to give back to society.
He said economic downturn in the country made the gesture imperative as the association believed that the strong should support the weak while the informed must support the uninformed to build a better society.
He explained that the choice of Shen, a rural community in Jos South Local Government Area, for the outreach was deliberate.
“People in villages do not have medical facilities. Some of the primary health centres in the villages lack trained personnel and do not have sufficient equipment.
“We decided to come to Shen to carry out this intervention. What we are doing includes observing vital medical signs of the people and referring them to the medical team.
“We have medical laboratory scientists in this team and other paramedical service providers.
“Based on results of medical tests, we give medication to those requiring them. Those whose ailments we do not have the capacity to handle here are referred to medical facilities,’’ he said.
Nsunwara added that the gesture was going on simultaneously across the world so the association could spread goodwill worldwide.
He expressed appreciation of the Kaduna State chapter of NAS and that of “Ground Zero’’, the New York chapter of the association, for supporting the medical interventions.
In his remarks, a Shen community leader, Elder Raphael Rapp, lauded NAS for the intervention.
He noted that Shen dwellers were faced with myriad health challenges and that the prevailing economic hardship had made it difficult for the people to seek orthodox medical treatment.
A beneficiary of the outreach, Mrs Kachollom Pam, said she was excited to get medical attention without going to Jos University Teaching Hospital.
Pam, a hypertension patient, prayed to God to grant NAS members their hearts’ desires. (NAN)
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