The medical team, consisting highly skilled opticians, doctors and medical professionals, worked tirelessly to ensure that each patient received the necessary treatment and care.”
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, has organised a free medical outreach to provide free eye care services, treatment, and medical services to his constituents outreach in Bende LGA.
A statement signed by his Special Assistant on Press Affairs, Udora Orizu, said the medical outreach lasted from 13th to 15th October, 2023.
The Benjamin Kalu Foundation, in collaboration with Vision Saver Eye Care Limited, has kicked off the National Action Against Blindness Project, with the three-day medical outreach.
(Photo: Deputy Speaker’s Media Office)
The exercise witnessed a massive turnout of constituents who needed medical attention for their eyes with over 1200 people receiving medications, medical eye glasses, and cataract surgeries, the statement said.
“The medical team, consisting of highly skilled opticians, doctors and medical professionals, worked tirelessly to ensure that each patient received the necessary treatment and care,” Orizu said.
Speaking when he received progress report from the team, Kalu emphasised that the project is not just for Bende Federal Constituency but for the entire nation as it will be extended to other parts of the country.
Harping on the need to double the impact during the next session, the Deputy Speaker also assured of his continued support, saying: “The beauty of Nigeria that a man from the North will identify with me, and the problems of my people in the South East, and abandoned his comfort in the north, relocated to the south East my place, spend time with my people to be able to solve their problem of blindness.
“It’s the type of Nigeria we are looking for, a Nigerian that knows that the pain in the southeast is the pain in the north, and that we are all connected to one another and we must be bothered with what is bothering one another.
“I’m proud of the vision savers, the cost analysis was good, their response time good, their professionalism good, the impact is massive. We wanted to treat 1000 people and you ended up treating 1200 plus.
“I will make sure it becomes one of my constituency projects to take care of these ones. Last time I did national health insurance scheme for them and we captured thousands of them to be receiving treatment. But this one the impact is immediate, from the eye surgery, we should be looking at how should we take care of dental issue of my people. How do we take care of malaria and other health issues, as their representative, it’s one of my concerns.
“We will go to the north, I’m going to be sending you to go to Kaduna State, under my sponsorship, you will go to Zaria where my Speaker comes from and look at the challenges there. I do it to celebrate my relationship with the Speaker, to take care of his people as well, he’s like a big brother, he’s a good leader.
“Thank you for this mission and may the almighty God bless you and enlarge you. We will partner with you for the four years I’m in this office, to help place joy on the lips of the people that will be present. I want you to go back in two weeks time and your action plan is to do review of what you have done and then you do another set. This time around let’s target 2000, the number needs to be doubled.”
In their separate remarks, beneficiaries from the 3-day programme appreciated the Deputy Speaker for the kind gestures and prayed for God’s protection and guidance as he continues to lead the constituency and also contribute to nation-building.