Sunday 19 May 2019

Free medical outreach to Mountanous Somorika community with no access road

Community members receiving medical care during the free medical outreach

Dr Dako Mamudu


I am Dr Dako Mamudu, a family physician based in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. I am the chief medical director of Dako Medical Centre and also founder and Chief Executive Officer for Dako Foundation for Rural Healthcare and Education. I lead my team to carry out healthcare delivery in remote, rural and difficult to reach communities. 

I was born and raised in a rural community where ninety percent of the houses were roofed with thatch. My empathy for rural healthcare 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. 

Somorika is an ancient city in Akoko Edo Local government area in Edo North, Nigeria. It is about five kilometers north-east of Igarra in Edo North. It is a community with a wealth of cultural heritage. However, the rocky geographic terrain of this community (several hills that go as high as 1700 feet interspersed at unequal intervals) and the often inaccessible road to the location result in a great inequality in access and provision of healthcare services to people in this location. 

DFRHCE staff going from the residence of the traditional ruler to the health centre where the medical outreach took place.


I lead my team to this mountainous Somorika community for free healthcare outreaches between 2017 and 2018. Members of my team and I climbed several rocks of varying heights in order to get to this community. Our first point of reach was the resident of the community leader. From where we climbed more rocks of varying heights to access the local primary health centre where we carried out the free medical outreach. Similar to my previous missions to rural communities, health care professionals from my team were brought from urban cities of Lagos, Benin City and Auchi to carry out this medical outreach at this community. This was a four day mission and my team consisted of 20 regular staff of the Foundation comprising of doctors, pharmacists, public health experts, nurses, community health extension workers (CHEWs) together with 15 local volunteers. The attending midwife in this facility together with the assistant; a nursing aid also participated in this mission.

DFRHCE outreach team preparing for Somorika mission
DFRHCE staff on the road to Somorika Community, Edo State, Nigeria.
This comprehensive outreach which includes free surgeries is in tandem with the Sustainable Development Goals aimed to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. The outreach activities consisted of community health education and sensitization, general consultation and treatment of endemic diseases, vitamin A supplementation for children and at risk population, mass drug administration of Albendazole to community members, distribution of lifesaving prenatal and post natal vitamin supplements to women of childbearing age and distribution of easy to use water purifying units to households in the community. Hospital equipments were also distributed free to the dilapidating community Primary Health Centre; the only source of healthcare in the community and its environ. The distributed equipments include artery forceps of different sizes, drip stands, hospital beds and mattresses, bedcovers and delivery couch.

Patients who required surgeries were referred to our partner hospital (Dako Medical Centre, Lagos) for free surgeries and follow up. Surgeries performed include breast lumpectomy, emergency caesarian section, and undescended testis (jointly sponsored by Amazing grace Hospital, Dako hospitals and Dako Foundation).

The community leader conducting the DFRHCE staff round his ancestral palace built in 1900.

The community leaders taking the DFRHCE team round the dilapidating infrastructure of the health centre.
Medical consultation for the Community Head of Somorika
Medical examination for optical refraction for patients with refractive errors.
Community members queuing up for registration for treatment.

Children receiving vitamin A supplementation

Over 5,000 rural patients were reached through repeated visits to the community for free medical mission. 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. 

My mission to take healthcare delivery to the underserved and difficult to reach communities in Nigeria will continue to take us to the underserved and almost forgotten people across communities in Nigeria. In the next edition, I shall publish our outreach work to Okorogbo and Akatakpo in the ‘urban rural’ communities in the heart of Lagos metropolis. Below are some of the images depicting our outreach activities.
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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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