Mass Medical Mission has launched the Health Education On The Go community mobilization campaign.
This campaign is aimed at expanding the impact of the various free life-saving initiatives offered by the organisation.
Mass Medical Mission is a Non-Governmental Organisation, formed in 2004 with the aim of complementing the efforts of the government to improve the health indices of Nigerians.
To do this the organisation has created many initiatives, one of which is Health Education On The Go! The campaign involves the deployment of a fleet of special buses which are designed to combine provision of health education with public transportation. The aim is to create mass awareness so that members of the general public can take advantage of all aspects of the programme.
Speaking more on the new buses that were launched on Tuesday, Dr. Abia Nzelu, the Executive Secretary of the Mass Medical Mission said, “The buses will ply routes along the Lagos mainland, Ikorodu axis, Surulere axis and the island. A token will be charged depending on the, route from the public to help fuel the buses.”
Other initiatives the organisation offers are The National Cancer Prevention Programme ( NCPP ) an initiative to make qualitative preventive care accessible to all Nigerians, Mission PinkCruise which is the mobile aspect of NCPP a mobile van fully equipped to carry out screening and treatment of pre-Cancer and early cancer, Mission PinkVISSION, Wellness Wednesday where you can walk into their centre at Bode Thomas , Surulere, Lagos, and receive free cancer and general health screening, Premarital Health Promotion Programme (PHPP) , Oral Health Foundation And Foundation for Imaging in Life and Medicine (F.I.L.M.) which seeks to make life saving and life enhancing radiologic, endoscopic and laboratory interventions accessible to the underprivileged.
Speaking on the take away of the programme and the initiatives of the NGO, Dr. Ken Egwuchim the National Coordinator National Cancer Prevention Programme said “We want people to spread the word that we’re preparing the rooster for 2019 and if you’re a church, a mosque, a club or any association that’s a gathering of people, you can get the mobile cancer centre to come to you; you don’t need to come to us.
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For those who want to come to us there’s an opportunity through the Wellness Wednesday programme where we have free cancer screening at the centre. We also have the premarital health programme for couples intending to wed to be able to know those killer diseases that can be passed from wife to husband and even from parents to children. That’s what we are trying to prevent. By so doing we shall raise the life expectancy of the average Nigerian which is currently the 7th lowest in the world.”
The Mass Medical Mission has four fixed centres currently- Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Asaba. The Mobile Cancer centres will operate from each fixed centre to service those states. In preparing the Rooster Dr. Abia Nzelu said they can’t go to other states yet except a body or the state government offers to help establish a fixed centre in that state.