By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Vaccine Network for Disease Control, said it has impacted on over 10,366 people in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from January to October alone.
The NGO added that by the end of December this year, about 100,000 people in the FCT would have been touched by the NGO.
Speaking yesterday to Peoples Daily in Abuja, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the NGO, Chika Offor said the categories of people included; women, children and other vulnerable people in various communities in the federal capital.
Offor further said that the NGO empowered over 62 People Living With HIV in the FCT .
She said the Vaccine Network is also working assiduously to reach out to people across the country.
“It is our desire that no one is left out on vaccine. Currently, we are operating in FCT, Niger, Nasarawa, Lagos and Anambra states to improve the lives of people in those areas.
“Through vaccine, we discovered that people have other pressing needs and we are working to address those challenges faced by the people. For instance, in the FCT, we have renovated several schools and paid school fees for many children in those schools. Aside that, we have our volunteers teaching to ensure that the children get quality education.”
On empowerment, the COO said several women in the FCT have been empowered with different businesses.
“The women in the communities we visited are always ready for business. Those we empowered with 10,000 Naira are now doing well for themselves and are taking care of their families. We discover that when a woman is educated, she will transform the whole family by ensuring that the children go to school and live meaningful lives. Through our empowerment programmes for women in the communities, several families are taking shape and those women’s businesses is booming. We at Vaccine Network are very happy with the development being recorded in various communities.”
On how to ensure effectiveness of immunization in most communities, Offor said that a new method should be employed to score the traditional rulers who should be at the forefront of campaigns for children in their communities to be vaccinated.
She said the new method should entrust the vaccination campaign in the hands of the community leaders to ensure that all people in need of vaccinations in their communities are vaccinated”.
She further called on the federal government and stakeholders in the health sector to own up the campaign, saying that most international NGO’s are withdrawing their funding for health in the country.
