Foundation wants government’s partnership with NGOs, CBOs to control malaria

The Program Manager, Daniel Ogech Akujobi Memorial (DOAM) Foundation Bukola Ajayi has insisted that for government to effectively tackle the scourge of malaria in the country, it is imperative to partner with non governmental and Community Based Organisations.

Speaking while providing free health services to the residents of Makoko in Yaba area of Lagos recently, she stated that ‘although government is doing is trying its possible best in addressing this scourge through provision of malaria drugs and mosquito nets for treatments at PHCs, other considerable avenues to address this could be through partnerships with CBOs and NGOs in health related aspect.’

According to her, ‘private firms also have a role to play through CSR initiatives geared at alleviating such health related issues. It is also not enough for government to allocate funds rather strategies should be put in place followed by proper implementation. National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) under the Federal Ministry of Health is already contributing to rapid and sustained scale-up malaria control interventions, however, they should work around creating a system for mapping, identifying, and engaging hard-to-reach, minority and socially disadvantaged populations.

Similarly, the Program Officer (Health), Sarah Numa, while commenting on the outreach said ‘we got to know about the prevalence of malaria here in Makoko, Yaba and we took it upon ourselves to come to their aid. Apart from providing treatment for malaria, we also gave members of the communities’ medical aids in vitamins deficiencies, hypertension and diabetes while children below the ages of five, pregnant women and the elderly received long lasting insecticidal nets’. Expressing his appreciation, Mr. Opeyemi Peters, one of the beneficiaries said ‘we are happy with what DOAM Foundation did.

According to him, one of our residents was going for malaria treatmentat the hospital today and I told him that officials from DOAM Foundation are coming to give malaria treatment and he came. He was even one of the first people to be attended to. He urged other non-governmental organizations to imitate what the foundation did

Similarly, Mrs Titi Ijedo,a female beneficiary also acknowledged the efforts of the foundation urged other government and non-governmental organisations to do the same.

‘DOAM Foundation is a humanitarian and non-governmental organisation focused at providing healthcare support and education to the less privileged in the society. It was set up in 2007 in memory of Late Master Daniel Ogechi Akujobi who died in auto crash.