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Sunday 7 April 2019

Post flood disaster intervention to victims of flood ravaged areas of Anegbette, Osomegbe and Ekperi Udaba communities of Etsako central local government area of Edo state of Nigeria

 Outreach team work distance into the communities. 
Dr Dako Mamudu 

I am Dr Dako Mamudu, a family physician based in Lagos, a mega city, Nigeria. I am also the founder and chief executive officer of Dako Foundation for Rural Healthcare and Education. I was born and raised in a rural community where ninety percent of the houses were roofed with thatch. The inhabitants of my village and its neighbouring communities were peasant farmers, hunters and petty traders. The only sources of water supply were about half a dozen of deep wells and a stream which was about five kilometers away. The six room block of classrooms in the community primary school which I attended was one of the buildings roofed with corrugated iron sheets. These were the prevailing situation of the communities in the region where I lived. 

Over the years, quality of health care delivery in rural communities has gone from bad to worse in most underdeveloped and developing countries of the world especially Sub Sahara Africa. In Nigeria in particular, the situation is worse in rural, riverine and difficult to reach communities. My empathy for these communities and its people led to the founding of Dako Foundation for Rural Healthcare and Education (Dako Foundation). Dako Foundation is a registered Non-Governmental Organization in Nigeria and it works to improve the living conditions of underserved and difficult to reach communities in Nigeria through education, empowerment, provision of social amenities, public health programmes and direct medical interventions. 

Anegbette, Osomegbe and Ekperi Udaba are parts of the riverine communities in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria where we regularly carry out our activities. The main occupations of the people of these communities are peasant farming and fishing. Together, the population size of all the riverine communities in this local government area is about 250,000. The closest accessible point of good healthcare to these communities is about 50km away and for about six months of the year, there is no access to these communities by road. 

Recently, just like it happened in previous years, tributaries of the River Niger, especially River Alika overflowed their banks (climate change) and swept over the communities; covered their farmlands and swept away their crops. Their homes were covered with water for over two months and they had to take refuge in refugee camps. 

Houses submerged by flood in the affected communities. 
As the flood started to recede, I led a post flood disaster intervention to these communities through Dako Foundation aimed to alleviate the pains inflicted on these communities and its people by the devastating impact of the disaster . Also, this outreach is in tandem with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) SDG 3: to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. 

DFRHCE team at our base station preparing for takeoff for the mission.

Still at the base station; donated clothes awaiting transfer to our work location. 

Health care professionals from my team were brought from urban cities of Lagos, Benin City and Auchi to carry out this medical/social outreach. This was a four day mission and my team consisted of 22 regular staff of the Foundation comprising of doctors, pharmacists, public health experts, nurses, community health extension workers (CHEWs) together with 20 local volunteers. Some health workers from the local health facilities were co-opted to participate in the outreach. 

I have previously carried out some health care missions with Dako Foundation to some of these communities in 2016. The only accessible road to the index communities was through a wooden bridge across a deep flowing river. 

 A Dako Foundation staff guiding the outreach vehicle through a wooden bridge (the only accessible road to most of the communities). 

During the post flood disaster intervention to the communities, myself and my team travelled over 500km from Lagos by road to our local base in Edo North. We then travelled another 35km on a daily basis through a lonely, rough, winding and dangerous road to the only accessible village in the community by road. From here we either walked to the near community or drive across a dangerous wooden bridge across a deep river to the communities. On arrival, we carried out health education and sensitization for community members followed by free medical consultations, prescription and treatment of local prevailing diseases (Figure 6, 7and 8). Also, items distributed include antifungal drugs; clothes; prenatal and postnatal multivitamin supplements for pregnant and lactating women; bread, medicated soaps, toothbrushes and toothpastes. Vitamin A supplementation was given to children and other at risk population (Figure 9). There was also mass drug administration of Albendazole to community members. 
Lactating woman received free drugs distributed by DFRHCE. 

Nursing staff carrying out blood pressure and vital signs measurements after registration.

Community members queue up to get registered for medical consultation 
Distribution of Vitamin A and albendazole to children during the outreach. 



In addition to the above, we distributed easy-to-use potable water sanitizing units with storage tanks to households in the communities (Figure above). This equipment does not require electricity and it is user friendly. It functions in such a way that when it is filled with water, and pressure is applied through the external hand pump, the buildup pressure within the unit drives water flow through the filtration component into its external tap where water is collected and stored in a clean storage. Water that flows through this filtration unit is suitable for drinking. 

Water purifying units distributed to heads of community households.

Overall 5,132 rural members were reached through three targeted visits to the communities for the free medical mission and distribution of relief materials. This is my passion and I am glad to work with a team that share same passion to bring healthcare to the hard-to-reach and underserved communities. I hope to arrange additional interventions to other communities in this locality that were not accessible at the time of this intervention. 

_________
Dr. Dako Mumudu MBBS,DFM, is the Chief Medical Director of Dako Medical
Centre, Lagos, Nigeria and founding Chief Executive Officer, Dako
Foundation for Rural Healthcare and Education.
Life Member, WONCA

Email: info@dakofoundation.org

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