Groups put smiles on faces of homeless children in Lagos

Help came the way of children in the informal settlement, Aboki Estate at the Elegushi Beach area of Lagos on Saturday as the health outreach and Christmas gift drive tagged “Hands of Care” organised by the Destiny Trust and Dr. Funmi Alakija Foundation in collaboration with the Doctors Health Initiative took care of them.

Children received free medical service for different medical conditions and gift packs of food, grocery, treated mosquito nets, personal sanitation items and sanitary pads for every teenage girl.

Speaking at the opening of the outreach, Yemisi Ayeni, chairperson of Dr. Funmi Alakija Foundation lamented the plight of urban poor children and families and called for increased collaborative efforts to bring relief to them regardless of how seemingly limited private-sector intervention appears to be.

She said the dream of Dr Funmi Alakija was to change the face of healthcare in Nigeria for low-income people and it was pleasant to be a part of the Hands of Care outreach.

Also, Abimbola Ojenike, co-founder of the Destiny Trust, emphasised the importance of the health outreach to the organisation’s broad initiatives.

“The wellbeing of children is at the heart of what we do. It’s often not enough to put children in school without implementing integrated initiatives necessary for their overall development,” he said.

“For example, ill-health is one of the major causes of absenteeism in school for homeless children. This is why an intervention to provide healthcare is an important plank of our broader programmes to educate, empower and improve the quality of lives of homeless children and other disadvantaged young people.”

While also recognising that the medical outreach is a short-term intervention, he re-emphasised the commitment of the organisation to a more sustained initiative.

“The foundation recognises the need for a sustained effort. As part of our plans for 2020, we are working on providing micro health insurance to children under our education project and we believe this will improve school attendance,” he said.

More than 80 volunteers comprising medical practitioners and other non-medical volunteers turned up to provide care and support to children in the settlement.