Health Screening for 12 villages in Rural Nigeria

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.