Health Screening for 12 villages in Rural Nigeria

The organization is in the process of securing the needed medications and medical supplies for November 2023 medical Outreach. Our commitment to care of those in the rural villages of Eastern part of Nigeria and beyond continues to be our main focus. We are encouraged each year to continue on this mission due to the reports we get from the beneficiaries, and the fact that most of them in this program are showing signs of better and fulfilling lives in terms of health.

Finances continues to be a limiting factor in our effort to expand the program  to more communities and to increase the number people served during the outreach and the maintenance program. We appreciate your commitment to this organization in form of financial assistance and prayers. We keep you informed about the outcome of the program after November.  

ACHI 2022 MEDICAL OUTREACH

The 2022 medical outreach was a year of testing of our passion and what we believe in the life of others and the actual need of the population we serve. The absence of this program for two years due to COVID-19 really brought to light the effectiveness of this program in the lives of the indigenes of Amakohia, Umugolo, and Avutu and its environs in Imo State Nigeria. We as an organization are in constant thought and plan on how to extend this program to the rest of the communities in the continent of Africa and not just Nigeria because their stories are same from country to country. The lack of access to health care is a common occurrence in other countries we have had the opportunities to visit. One thing that all these countries have in come is their dependence on the government for all aspect of health care services, and the fact that the citizens are very poor and have no means of paying for health care services. The governments in these countries do not have a health care system in place for its citizens. And this poses a huge problem in country of Nigeria where there is limited or no access to health care by its citizens, mostly the ones in the rural areas.

During this concluded medical outreach we discovered that this program has really made an impact in the life of many in the rural areas. We have many people travel from other states and local governments to attend the program. Our annual program serves as physical exams for the attendees and at this same time a means of fishing out cases of diabetics and hypertensive. Our main goal is to identify the individuals with chronic diseases (diabetes and hypertension) to be enrolled in our chronic disease management module. During this outreach every condition identified is treated with adequate medications and treatments.

AVUTU COMMUNITY: We set out to the village of Avutu in Obowo LGA for a three day outreach that started on 11/22/2022 through 11/24/2022. During the outreached, we screened 763 adults for various illnesses and saw 250 children. The children were all dewormed of intestinal worms and given health talk on personal hygiene including oral care. Toothpaste and toothbrushes were given to every kid that came to the program with their parents. This village is being sponsored by Paschal Nwokocha’s family and Fr. Gerald Njoku foundation annually.   

AMAKOHIA COMMUNITY: This village house’s our Resource center and serves as the venue for the annual outreach and the maintenance program for Ihitte/Uboma LGA and other communities around. We were at this location for two days; from December 12/02/22 through 12/03/22.  During the outreached, we screened 708 adults for various illnesses and saw 209 children. The children were all dewormed of intestinal worms and given health talk on personal hygiene including oral care. Toothpaste and toothbrushes were given to every kid that came to the program with their parents.  

UMUGOLO COMMUNITY: : We set out to the village of Umugolo in Ehime Mbano LGA, for a two day outreach that started on 11/29/2022 through 11/30/2022. During the outreached, we screened 730 adults for various illnesses and saw 159 children. The children were all dewormed of intestinal worms and given health talk on personal hygiene including oral care. Toothpaste and toothbrushes were given to every kid that came to the program with their parents.

SUMMARY: The mission was concluded on the 3^rd of December after which we were faced with sorting the cards and identifying the ones will be enrolled in the ongoing maintenance program that centers on monitoring of blood glucose, blood pressures and medication management and supply.

We observed a great increase in the number of people living with diabetes and hypertension. The two years gap in the annual outreach program due to COVID was also a contributing factor to this surge. This has really helped to show our donors and supporters the need and effectiveness of this program. We are hoping more funding and supports to extend this program to more communities. The number of individuals in the maintenance program has gone from 450 to 1,116 this year. This means increase in the needed medications and medical supplies.  

African community health Initiative is finally planning its first medical outreach in Nigeria post COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited to get back to the field again after two years. ACHI continued its maintenance during the pandemic. We able to food to 450 families, medications and medical supplies to the individuals identified with chronic disease like Diabetes and Hypertension. We saw the need for continuity and sustainability of this project of reaching the needy in the rural areas of Imo state. We truly were able to see the effectiveness of this project and what would happen without the continuity. We lost few individuals with Insulin dependent diabetes because of our limited resources during the pandemic, which resulted in making Insulin and testing supplies available to these individuals difficult. 

We are starting this year’s Outreach on the 22nd of November covering three Local government areas. We are anticipating a very large crowd due to the state of Nigerian economy and decreased access to any form of medical treatment in these areas. The sad aspect of our mission is not being able to see everyone that shows up and having to turn people away due to limited funds and supplies. We know that the number will be doubled and our resources are very limited.

We thank all our donors over the years. The number needing help is increasing every day, more and more people are being displaced internally due to insecurity in every part of the country. More help is needed to assist more people.   

The just concluded maintenance program in the three communities; Amakohia, Avutu and Umugolo all in Imo state Nigeria went very well. We were able to pack 450 bags of food containing the following items: 18 cups of Brown Beans, 18 cups of Black eye peas, 18 cups of Rice, a packet of Maggie cubes, Onions and Tomatoes. Every individual was also given six months supply of their medications, to last them until the next anticipated Outreach in the month of November. The living conditions in the country continue to worsen. The security situation in the country is getting worse every day and no known solution is in sight,   

One of our goal on this concluded trip, was to assess the situation on ground and to start recruiting for mission 2022. We discovered that most of the volunteers have left the country in search of better lives for their families. Also some of them relocated to different states in search of jobs. ACHI will be conducting a seven days outreach in the three communities for case finding and health education. We are expecting a great number of people this year because of the debilitated condition of some of the health clinics in Nigeria and the poverty level that has been on the rise. We continue to thank our donors who have followed us, believed in our missions and the work we do in bringing hope and help to the hopeless and helpless. Your financial assistance and prayers have always been our strength in reaching these people. Your help is needed now, more than ever. The state of hunger and hopelessness is also on the rise,

The pandemic has really affected the way we do things at ACHI. We have gone two years without being able to carry out the Outreach program in the areas that we serve in the rural areas in Imo State Nigeria. Our goal of bringing health care to the less privileged in the areas where is no or limited access to health due to financial difficulty and availability of any functioning healthcare institutions in these areas, continues to be our main goal and focus.

During this period of uncertainty in the country due to the unrest, increased insecurity and poverty level, we have come to realize the need for food availability and not just medications for those on the maintenance program. We were able to package and distributed 450 bags of food to families during our November/December maintenance program. Each food bag was made up of 18 cups of raw rice, 18 cups of Brown beans, 18 cups of Black eye peas, onions, Tomatoes and Maggi seasoning. 

We also gave the participants on the maintenance program 5months supply of their medications to make sure they have their medications incase the Covid hits them hard. We are getting ready to embark on another trip by end of April to do another food distribution and medication management. Making food available gave them hope and make their medication compliance easier.    

There are a lot of needs out there and many people looking for any form of assistance in life. We can only do much and hope and pray to do more and reach more people but we cannot due to financial constrain. We cannot thank our friends, Friends of Nigeria, St Mary's women Guild of Christ Episcopal Church in Woodbury and members of the congregation, Fr Gerald Onuoha Foundation and Paschal Nwokocha and his family. We will do more and reach more people with more financial support.