Health
NGO seeks inclusivity, support for people with autism
The founder of the Sustainable Development for Africa Youth Initiative (SuDAYI), Victoria Jim, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), is advocating for greater inclusivity and support for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Jim made the appeal on Thursday in Abuja during the unveiling of SuDAYI, emphasising the importance of collective efforts in creating a more inclusive society for individuals with autism and their families.
According to Jim, every individual with autism deserves access to quality education, healthcare, and social services that cater to their specific needs.
“Growing up in Africa, I witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by individuals with autism and other disabilities.
“I saw how they were often marginalised, excluded, and denied access to basic rights and opportunities,” she said.
However, Jim also highlighted the potential, talent, and resilience of individuals with autism, noting that with the right support, resources, and opportunities, they could achieve greatness.
Jim stated that SuDAYI was committed to bridging the gap in autism services and support in Nigeria.
“In the next two years, the NGO plans to implement a comprehensive autism management intervention.
“This intervention will focus on providing inclusive education and support to families, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.
“Additionally, SuDAYI aims to establish partnerships with government agencies, NGOs, and community leaders to promote autism awareness and acceptance.”
Rep. Bashiru Dawodu, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Disability Matters, spoke about ongoing efforts to amend the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act 2018.
He noted that the current law did not adequately address the needs of children and women with disabilities.
“We think those areas are specific areas that need to be addressed, including intellectual disabilities and developmental needs for children with cerebral palsy or neurodegenerative conditions,” Dawodu said.
He also emphasised that discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) was punishable under the law.
Dr Opiti Chukwunekwu, Associate Director at Health System Consult Limited, discussed the prevalence of autism in Nigeria, which was estimated at 2.1 per cent.
He clarified that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was not a disease but a developmental disorder that occurred during a child’s development in the womb.
Chukwunekwu explained that autism was a spectrum, with different manifestations across its five elements.
He emphasised the importance of supporting individuals with autism to develop skills and reach their potential.
“Many prominent people have been shown to have traits of autism and still went on to achieve great things,” he said.
Chukwunekwu also stressed that while there was no cure for autism, effective management focused on empowering individuals with the disorder.
“This includes behavioral interventions, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and social skills training, all aimed at improving outcomes for those living with autism.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SuDAYI’s objective is to empower children and youth with autism and other disabilities, enabling them to participate fully in and contribute to their communities.
(NAN)
Health
Medical Outreach: Prioritise Primary Health Care policies-Pastor Ikotun Urges Government
Joel Ajayi
Resident Pastor of the Elevation Church Abuja, Pastor Bowale Ikotun, has urged the government to establish more primary health care centre to strengthen its policies in various communities, to be able to attend to health emergencies in the community.
He made this call on Saturday during a free medical outreach, organised by the Elevation Church Abuja and PISTIS Foundation, known as UBOMI Project Abuja, which took place at Jabi Lake Park Abuja.
Pastor Ikotu, said that the purpose of organising the outreach is to meet the needs of the community and help residents acquire free medical services.
“We all know what is going on currently in Nigeria, where the cost of even Primary Health Care has gone up out of the reach of the common man, and so as a church, God has put in our hearts to be a blessing to our community”.
“So one of the ways in which we are a blessing to the community is to organize doctors, nurses within us and friends amongst us to come and do free medical consultation, most importantly in the primary health care area of health.”
He further urged other religious organisations, non governmental organisations to try to organise outreach that adds to the wellbeing of individuals in the community in order to support the government.
“The truth of the matter is that the government cannot do it alone, and that is why, we as a church, we are coming up to assist the Government in whatever way we can “.”So I encourage a lot of other religious organizations to be part and parcel of this”.
Head of partnership for the UBOMI Project Abuja Mr Davidson Amedu, said the Elevation Church Abuja is expressing the love of God through the UBOMI Project.
“We are partnering with Pistis Foundation, which is a registered organization under the Elevation Church to enable tye Church help people with medical solutions.
“We understand the health situation of the country. Not everybody right now can afford medical supplies. In fact, there is also a short supply of medical experts in the country right now, and the few that are available, very scarce, to even the average middle class person, talk more of the underserved and the underprivileged.”
“So we decided to bridge the gap to create such a project that intervenes, that steps in to give medical solutions, ranging from diagnosis to counseling to consultation to medical and pharmaceutical supplies itself, all for free. Nobody is paying a dime here”.
“This is our way of saying God loves you, God wants you to be well. Not everybody’s level is fit to the point where they can do without medicine, and saying I trust God for healing or divine health”.
“We pray for people, we administer healing, but we still believe that medicine has its role, place and position in humans life so we are able to help people move from wherever they are medically to a more balanced and more healthy disposition.”
He also expressed that this is the first edition of UBOMI Project in Abuja but it’s going to have other edition to come in the near future.
“The Elevation Church has its headquarters in Lagos, and we’ve donbe series of UBOMI Project editions, where we cater for 1000s of people.”
” In Lagos, we even do surgeries, we do major operations, but this is the first we are doing in Abuja, and it is not going to be the last, obviously, because we have seen that there is a gap.”
“There is a huge gap in even accessing medical supplies and medical solutions are even more expensive in abuja. So we want to be able to, deliver some of these solutions to people for free.”
“look out for more editions of this project across the Country and in other parts of Africa, we will do much more to the glory of God” he added.
Executive Director, Pistis Foundation, Mr Leanord F-Thomas, said that Ubomi Project is taking a hospital to a community, with medical experts, from different parts of the country and volunteers to serve for a certain period.
He said the UBOMI medical outreach is structured to work with social and governmental organisations to provide data of advocacy, preventive healthcare risk.
He further express that the data gathered enables them to know the highest cases of illness in the community and ways to prefer solutions to those cases.
“So those data are gathered, it helps us to know, for example, you know, how many cases of malaria in a certain community, how many cases of diabetes are in a certain community? Not only do we treat the cases during the outreach, we’re able to profile solutions”.
“So we are here to support whatever it is that the government has established to address the ills in society.”
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