The Rotary Club of Lagos, District 9110, has received a commendation from the Sickle Cell Foundation, General Hospital Lagos, Odan, and General Hospital Shomolu for the distribution of mobility aids.
This donation completes Phase 4 of the project, in which wheelchairs, armpit crutches, walking sticks, walkers, and specialty walkers were donated.
The national director/CEO, Sickle Cell Foundation, Nigeria, Dr. Annette Akinsete, said this is a wonderful gesture from the Rotary Club of Lagos.
“We cannot do this on our own because we depend on donations from charitable organisations and individuals.
“Today, the Rotary club has donated to us walking aids, and these items are very important to our patients who have complications like chronic leg ulcers or leg sores that fail to heal, and one of the ways to make them heal better is to protect the leg from walking all the time. Patients with Avascular Necrosis (AVN) who will go for hip replacement surgery also need wheelchairs, so these items will help them.”
She believes this will ameliorate the pains of patients. “I know this will go a long way because complications from a leg ulcer can be debilitating and stigmatising, so any support that will improve mental health and emotional support is welcomed.”
She called on others to emulate what the club has done. “This will serve as a wake-up call for other charitable organisations and individuals in Nigeria and beyond to support the foundation like Rotary is doing, and to think that Nigeria ranks highest in the number of sickle cell cases in the world, so we should be at the forefront of all this effort,”she said.
On her part, the medical director, General Hospital, Odan, Lagos, Dr. Abiola Aduke Mafe, believes the donation will go a long way to be of serious benefit to patients and the indigent most especially, so it is no feat and we appreciate Rotary Club.
Dr. Club said they have made a good decision by donating to the hospital.
“The Rotary Club of Lagos could not have made a better decision to come to the general hospital in Lagos because we are the first and the biggest, so this is where the donation will be most used and appreciated, so they have made a good decision,”he said.
Additionally, the medical director of Shomolu General Hospital, Dr. Oseni Saliu, stated that “it is interesting when you see people go around and donate things that will benefit the needy, and this gesture will go a long way to helping patients that need mobility aid. We have many patients here because we also attend to orthopedicedic patients, or when we have emergency patients or those who need to be ambulated, they will use wheelchairs.”
This, I say, is a welcome idea, and we are grateful to the Rotary of Lagos and their benefactors, and we thanked them for what they have done.
