Introduction:

NAS carries out a medical mission every quarter during the quarterly meetings of the Association. The 4^th quarter meeting of the Association is the Annual general meeting and it took place in Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. During the 2016 AGM of the Association, a free medical mission was carried out in 2 Internally Displaced Peoples’ camps in the FCT. Kuchingoro AND Waru IDP Camps on 5^th August 2016.

Prior to the medical mission as with other missions, a scoping mission to the camps were carried out by members of the Association to ascertain the common medical problems in the camps. It also afforded the Association to allow the Leadership of the camp to ensure that the agreed date of the free medical mission is kept for NAS as other humanitarian groups also render assistance to the camps from time to time. It is at this scoping mission that we discovered that both camps harbor inhabitants from Guosa LGA of Borno State and they were displaced as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The scoping mission afforded the association to understand that apart from drugs needed for curing the common ailments which ranged from malaria, skin diseases, hypertension, eye diseases, peptic and duodenal ulcers to eye problems in the IDP camps, malnutrition and the need for clothes and other personal needs was paramount. This prompted the Association to put up a call for donation of food stuff, clothes, shoes and other basic needs which was well responded to by members.

The NAS medical Mission in the IDP camps of Kuchingoro and Yimitu Waru afforded NAS the opportunity of meeting some of the Medical and basic needs of the camps by using vast human resources of the organization in diagnosing, treating of common medical ailments in the camps and at the same time donating food stuff, clothes, insecticide treated nets, blankets etc. to the inhabitants of the camps.

Advocacy & Social Mobilization:

Advocacy was carried out to the leaderships of both camps and the Medical Mission team obtained a written consent from them and discussed the logistics and where the free medical mission and donation will take place. An open space (football pitch) was chosen for New Kuchingoro camp, while an open space within the Yimitu Waru camp was selected for use.

Implementation:

Implementation commenced in both camps simultaneously. Donated and bought non-medical items which include; cartons of indomie noodles and spaghetti, bags of rice, carton of bathing soap and detergents, insecticide treated nets, blankets, cartons of sachet milk, cartons of tomatoes, cartons of sanitary towels, solar powered rechargeable lights, children and adult clothes, shoes and slippers amongst others were brought into the open space and the medical drugs were arranged for dispensing by the Pharmacist.

Registration points and screening desks manned by nurses registered and screened the clients before they are seen by the Consulting Doctors. Drugs were dispensed by the Pharmacy team after the clients have been seen by the Medical Doctors.

The Deputy International President flagged off the ceremony in both camps. A presentation of one of the donated non-medical item to the Leadership of the camp symbolizes the flag off of the event. They were accompanied by some media houses and interviews were granted on the need for other humanitarian organizations to support IDPs having carried out similar exercises at the Bakassi Retunees IDP camp in Yenagoa Bayelsa State and the IDP camp in Ohogua Edo State. The Leadership of both camps made an appreciative speech to the Association.

Crowd controllers were used to manage the crowd for orderliness. In addition to the treatment rendered to the children, irrespective of their ailments sachets of oral rehydration salt was given to all the children that came for the mission. Rapid diagnostics and screening for blood sugar level and malaria parasites were carried out by the Laboratory Scientists to aid diagnosis.

Drugs were dispensed by the Pharmacy Team. Ophthalmic patients had refractive tests and those that need eye glasses were given at the New Kuchingoro IDP camp that had an optometrist. Clients that required referrals and follow up treatment were referred to National Hospital.

The implementation commenced at 10:00 Hrs and 10:30 Hrs in New Kuchingoro and Yimitu Waru IDP camps respectively and finished at about 17:30 Hrs.

Personnel used:

• 15 Medical Doctors (8 in New Kuchingoro and 7 in Yimitu Waru IDP Camps)
• 16 Nurses (8 in each camp)
• 4 Laboratory Scientists (2 in each camp)
• 2 Pharmacists
• 6 Crowd Controllers (3 in each camp)
• 1 optometrist in New Kuchingoro IDP Camp

Sponsorship:

Sponsorship of the mission was by NAS, however members both offshore and onshore made personal donations of medical and non-medical consumables.

Summary of Clients seen:

Both IDP camps had a large turnout of clients, this is not unconnected to the mobilization that was carried out by NAS for the event

A breakdown of the clients seen in both camps are:

New Kuchingoro IDP Camp

Total number of registered clients and treated during the mission in this camp = 258

Demographics of Client that were seen

Disease Spread

Laboratory Services:

Total number of clients screened for Malaria = 25

Positive Results = 20

Total number screened for Random Blood Sugar = 6

Positive result for Diabetes Mellitus = 4

Yimitu Waru IDP Camp

Total number of registered clients and treated during the mission in this camp = 253

Demographics of Client that were seen

Disease Spread

Laboratory Services:

Total number of clients screened for Malaria = 46

Positive Results = 35

Total number screened for Random Blood Sugar = 10

Positive result for Diabetes Mellitus = 2

The free medical mission and donations to the 2 IDP camps in Abuja was a successful outing as the inhabitants of the camps were given medical treatment and their basic needs of clothings and food. Because of the peculiarity of the camps with malaria being a more prevalent ailment, the over 100 insecticide treated nets will help in reducing the frequency of malaria attacks.

NAS Medical Mission