Health Screening for 12 villages in Rural Nigeria

ACHI's annual health screening is on the way. We are anticipating higher volume this year based on the report from the volunteers on ground. The maintenance program was concluded on 6 October in the three communities. Due to the rise in number of individuals living with hypertension and diabetes worldwide our organization experience the effect of the increase during its monthly maintenance program which resulted in shortage of medications for the individuals with hypertension. We have limited funds and can only budget for a limited number every year. The situation of things in the country is not getting better as more people are being displaced, internally, and have access to health care or financial resources. We continue to find ways to bring hope to these hopeless and helpless individuals living with chronic diseases, while we educate them on self -care and life style changes.  More help is being sort and needed. We continue to value your continued support in making this annual mission possible every year. More help is needed to reach more of these individuals with need. Our mission this will be from November 17 through November 28  

African community health initiative is getting ready for its 2019 annual medical outreach in the rural villages in Nigeria where there is no access to health care services. Screening of village dwellers for chronic diseases, and educating them on the disease process and how to self-manage the conditions, continues to be our focus. New cases are discovered every year, and added to the number of people receiving maintenance treatment. Due to the poor economic condition, and unrest in parts of the country, the number of people seeking medical attention doubles every year. We are constantly turning people away due to limited resources and funding. We continue to need your support in reaching these individuals with health care needs. Thank you for your continued support of ACHI in our mission of bringing hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless.

African community health initiative have continued to conduct monthly maintenance pro at the following locations in Imo State Nigeria namely Avutu-Obowo, Amakohia- Ihitte/Uboma and Umugolo- Ehime Mbano. The management of chronic disease the continuity and sustainability of care. We embark on this because the population we serve have little or no access to health care in the rural areas they reside; they have no income to be able to buy the needed medications and medical supplies. We also to this to monitor the progression of their illness or the effective of the program. We have received lots of positive feedback from the recipients of this program. Thirdly, the medication available to them in the rural areas are substandard and not effective. The Amakohia village for the continued work we are doing to save lives through our annual screening, health education and monthly maintenance program also recognized ACHI. These lives would not have been saved if not for your continued donations and support. We are hoping to get more villages involved in this good work that is really making a difference in people’s lives.

We gong to work Uzuakoli community in Abia state strengthen their program we helped start four years ago. Also Umuderim in Imo state is also asking for our help in starting the program. This year ACHI also helped a group of nurses to need assessment in Kenya. We could not have done this with your donation. We have started planning for our annual mission to Nigeria by November and will need your continued support.  

This year’s mission was started on 11/16/18 -11/27/18.  We started with Umugolo village, where we spent two days screening everyone for case finding and treating for everything that was their diagnosis. The crowd keeps increasing every year with people coming from different villages both far and near. We noticed that the number of people living with diabetes and hypertension are increasing in number, and the organization is seeing more people that are already diagnosed but unable to afford their medications. Their stories are the same, that they were informed by someone in the maintenance program about the effectiveness of the medications they receive from ACHI and their progress since they have been on the program.

For some people it is not only not being able to buy their medications, but not knowing how to manage their condition. Most of them treat chronic diseases like acute cases. They have the notion that taking a week prescription of their medication will take care of their diabetes and hypertension. Their coming to ACHI is also to get more information about the disease process, management that includes lifestyle changes, diet, and medication management.

The second village was Avutu Obowo, where we spent three days, and the third was Amakohia. There were lots of hopelessness and helplessness amongst people in attendance. I had a young woman who said she was diagnosed with diabetes three years into her marriage and she has been married for seven years. She has had two stillbirths, many miscarriages, and her blood sugar was above 600, A1c was greater than 13. She was asked how she has been managing her diabetes, and she said by taking oral medications because she was advised not to take insulin because she will go blind from it. She was also referred by someone who is benefiting from the program, to come to the outreach. There are many stories like hers that are very sad emotional. There is a great need for this program to be continued and spread to other parts of the country and continent. We are limited to what we can do and how far we can get because of limited resources. We have the love for the work, the passion, time and energy but we cannot. The problem is not just financial poverty but the poverty of knowledge; not knowing WHY, HOW, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE. We could break these barriers by reaching more people with more support. We have been able to so much with your continued support and we say thank you. We are hoping for a better 2019 so we can do more.                

Our 2018 Health screening in Nigeria is coming up next month, and we are hoping to increase the number of people screened. Our goal of more people needing our services every year is dependent on funding for medications and medical supplies. Over the years of the medical missions we have lots patients with cataract problems and needed surgery but unable to get that done due to financial difficulties. We are looking for more support to help us render this service to some of the bad cases among them. We will write full report on the mission when we come back. Thank you for your continued support