Lagos, Nov. 14, 2019 (NAN) In a bid to impact lives and promote good health, no fewer than 1,000 residents and workers in Kirikiri Town and Oriade Local Government Area benefited from the medical outreach organised by Total Nigeria Plc in Lagos.
Its Managing Director, Mr Imrane Barry said on Thursday that Total, as a responsible company was not just commited to better energy, but also to the well-being of the society where it operates and carrys out business.
Barry who was represented Mrs Bunmi Popoola-Mordi, Executive General Manager, Total Country Services, said this at a medical outreach on cadiovascular disease held at Kirikiri Town in Lagos.
According to him, the medical outreach is specially targeted at cardiovascular disease, which is a major public health issue in nigeria.
He said that the company believed the disease was not receiving the attention it requires from all the stakeholders concerned.
Barry said, “Therefore, in line with our Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) policy, we are committed to the improvement of the health of our employees, their families and the communities with which we carry out our act.
“This, we do through participating in health programmes.
He said, the Total Cardiovascular disease initiative was in direct alignment with the Federal Ministry of Health’s National Strategic Action Plan of Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Disease (2015) which identifies CVD as a major public healrhissue in Nigeria.
The managing director explained the objective of the project was to reduce the precelance of cardiovascular disease in Nigeria.
According to him, CVD, being primary due to behovourial risk factors, raising public awareness is as crucial as being able to benefit from early detaction.
Barry said: “To strenghten this awareness, we must act collectively by engaging our stakeholders by buildong partnerships and by actively contributing to public health policies.
“Presently, cadiovascular diseases like diabetics, hypertension, cononaey geart disease or stroke are the leading cause of death in the world.
“Since the early 2000, roughly 17 million people worldwide have died from cardiovascular diseases annually. Majority of these death were the result of coronary heart disease or stroke- that’s more than victims of cancer, HIV and AIDS, and malaria.
“The World Diabectic Day is a part of an international campaign to sprear awareneas about cardiovascular diseases, life stylechange and invariably, stroke prevention.
“Cardiovascular disease (CVD) are responsuble for half of all non-communicable diseases making it the number one killer.
“In recent times, rapid urbanisation and its effects on health and the environment have led to a rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases including CVD.”
He noted that during the company’s recent stakeholder engagement exercise, Kirikiri town was highlighted as a traffic prone area with the health of road users and residents being at risk of cardiovascular disease numbers.
Barry said that necessitated the company embarking on a medical outtreach in the area he company and enable the people take the neccessary precautionary measures in managing their health.
“As part of the Total Group Cardiovascular Health Disease Initiative, we are implementing this one day medical outreach which involves screening exervise of blood pressure, blood sugar and Body Mass Index (BMI) checks.
“We are partnering with Axa-Mansard, out Health Management Organisations(HMO) to implement this outreach, we will also distribute multilingual information, educational and communication materials to help pass the message more effectively to members of the public.
We wish to apeal to orher corporate organisations and public institutions to also join in the fight against cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria . We belueve that the broad-based multi-sectoral approach with the right partnerships will go a long way to stem the rising tide of cardiovascular disease in our society.
On her part, Popoola-Mordi, also the team leader, said the United nations and several health organisations studies had shown that cardiovascular diseases remain the huge killers of people.
Popoola-Mordi also said a number of people in the couple years to come because of cardiovascular diseases if not prevented early.
“This programme is more about prevention, for people to know. We are doing this in conjuction with the Lagos State Health Authority and also partnership with our HMO supportung us.
“We have several programmes in a year and this is one of such progr,mes. We have the World Aids Day coming up on Dec.1st, and we will be acting to that. We also have the Malaria Day.
“So we do several health initiatives and several supports in terms of buying equipment for the government hospitals,” she said.
She commended the people in the Kirikiri environs, saying their response and turn out was absolutely fantastic.
The general manager thanked the people within the Kirikiri axis and Oriade Local Government Area.
She said, “This is one of the well organised I have ever seen because the people have come out in a very orderly manner and the turnout has been huge.
“Today, so far, we have tested about 700 people this morning and we are still continuing until we run out of the drugs and kits we came with.”
The company also donated traffic management gadgets to Federal Road Safety Copetation (FRSC).
