By Muhammad B. Muhammad
A Humanitarian organization, Hellen Keller International (HKI), established since 1908, has been operating in Nigeria for 25 years, and has recognized and awarded Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State for creating an environment for successful and impactful programme implementation.
HKI currently operates in 12 states in Nigeria and has been partnering with the Adamawa state government to improve the sight and lives of the most vulnerable; especially in the areas of combating blindness and malnutrition.
The Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Suleiman Saidu Bashir recieved the award on behalf of the Governor in Abuja on Friday during a Gala Night, celebrating Helen Keller International Nigeria’s 25 years of impactful work.
The Country Director of Helen Keller International in Nigeria, Aliyu Mohammed, applauded the leadership and support of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri for prioritizing the health sector and making it one of the key agendas of his administration.
He announced that over 73 million Nigerians have benefitted from the organization’s humanitarian efforts in the country adding that the NGO has provided essential commodities to fight malnutrition and eliminate neglected tropical diseases.
His words: “Nigeria has 220 to 230 million persons and we are working in one-third of Nigeria, which is more than 73 million people. So we are delivering essential commodities to eliminate neglected tropical diseases, and also reduce malnutrition among women and children in all these states and that is the biggest achievement we can say we are making.
“We have strengthened the system in which screening is being done for malnutrition in the states where we support. We train mothers, health workers, and all of them are deploying the resources that we have, that they have: technical expertise that they have now gained to do more. These are some of the impacts that we have realized.”
The country director explained that Helen Keller International ensures its humanitarian aid recipients are reintegrated into society, enabling them to function at their full capacity.
He stated that with the appropriate support, Helen Keller would maintain its commitment in the states where it currently operates and expand its efforts to other regions of the country.
“Elimination of diseases requires you to keep doing the treatment until you eliminate these diseases. So we have places for example, where we no longer need to treat.
“So many millions of people are now out of treatment for neglected tropical diseases.
“And if we look at it differently, we have sent so many people back to doing their businesses, for example, those 10,000 people that have had trachoma surgery. Trachoma can cause irreversible blindness, which means when somebody is blind, he is blind for life. We are able to operate on them which means we have reversed the condition that they had. Now they are back into their businesses, which means socio-economically, they are doing well. This is in Katsina and then in Adamawa state.
“In nutrition; Vitamin A has an effect in terms of reducing child mortality. We have been delivering this commodity way back in 2020 and till today, we have continued to do it. This is going to continue to happen as long as we have resources to invest in the states where we support,” Mohammed further said
He however acknowledged that the government was doing a lot to support the campaign to eliminate neglected tropical diseases in focal states, while urging them to do more to create a system to enable Helen Keller routinise its services for government to take over.
“Government is doing quite a lot. For example, the personnel we are training are paid by the government; they are on the payroll of the government. That is enough. They have office space, which the government is also providing, but we need to have counterpart funding on the part of government for the activities that we are implementing.
“If we want to sustain activities, we need the government to take ownership. We have some places where government has started taking ownership of the activities we are implementing. Our role is to provide the additional technical support they require, and the additional financial support in order for them to continue doing it.
“For example, Akwa Ibom. In the past, we used to pay for radio jingles. As we speak, over the last three years, we have had a strong partnership with the Minister of Information and for every social orientation and social awareness campaign that we are doing, we are getting it for free – not for free, because it is paid for by the Government at the media houses in Akwa Ibom State.”
In his remark, Senator Representing Borno South Senatorial district, Mohammed Ali Ndume commended Helen Keller Int’l for the impacts made in delivering free medical and nutritional aids among others, to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians, particularly in the North East.
Ndume however charged the organisation to pay more attention to Borno South, narrating that 13 years down the line, thousands who fled their homes due to insurgency were yet to return, and have dire need for humanitarian aid.
“Most of our people left forcibly with nothing and are scattered all over. Some are in Cameroon now; over 60,000 or so. Some are in Niger – over 120,000 displaced for over 13 years.
“I’m interested in anything that will help our people who are in dire need of any kind of support. So any organization that is involved in doing anything to humanity I must come and be part of it,” the senate chief whip assured.
