A group of people with disabilities under the aegis of Abuja Disabled Persons live in a tough world of their own; AMEH EJEKWONYILO writes.
Little Sadiya Shuaibu is just five months old, but her asthmatic mother, Fatima, who is on wheelchair as a result of complications from poliomyelitis, defied the scorching heat and wheeled herself and her baby into the LEA Primary School, Karonmajiji, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where a non-governmental organisation, Islamic Culture and Education (ICICE), provided free medical services to inhabitants of the Disabled Colony recently.
Dangling in her mother’s left arm, Sadiya cried uncontrollably as her mother struggled to wheel herself with her right hand into the venue of the medical outreach. According to Fatima, a 21-year-old mother of two and housewife, the free health programme was the only way of accessing medical care as her husband, Suleiman Shuaibu, is a scavenger and, therefore, could not afford to pay for such services.
“I always attend this annual medical outreach usually organised by the Islamic centre, due to my husband’s inability to foot our medicals. He does scavenging for living, and barely manage to get our upkeep from the scavenging work. The doctors from the Islamic centre also provide medical attention for my baby too,” Fatima told this reporter.
The story of the Shuaibus ushers a first time visitor into the dire world of the “Abuja disabled” where the basic necessities of life are a luxury. In their hundreds, they thronged the venue of the medical outreach, either being assisted by a family member or by a Good Samaritan who empathised with them.
It was in that light that Abukakar Haruna, a blind octogenarian, was led by his eight-year-old grandson, Aliyu, to the centre for medical checks. Haruna’s plight is not different from that of Umar Halilu, whose seven years old son, Danlami, led him to LEA Primary School Karonmajiji for the exercise.
One after the other, they defied the harsh weather condition to access the programme. They trickled in until the place was brimming with physically challenged families in desperate need of some of life’s essential services that were beyond their reach.
Located off the expressway to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, adjacent the Abuja city gate, a bumpy and dusty road welcomes visitors to Karonmajiji community, the community mostly inhabited by peasants that begs for attention in all areas of life. The secretary of the Abuja Disabled Colony, Malam Mohammed Dantani, in a chat with this reporter said theirs is a “world of needs.”
“The Abuja Disabled Colony as you can see is a world of people in need of basic things of life. By that I mean things like food, water, shelter, hospital and school for our children. Most importantly education is what we need most because our children should be educated so that they can contribute meaningfully to society. But you can see that the only primary school in the entire community cannot cater for the elementary education of our children.
“If you look around here, we do not have pipe borne water. The only water source is a handheld borehole that cannot meet the water needs of over 500 families. These are the challenges we face on a daily basis,” Dantani, an amputee, said.
The medical succour
Prior to the commencement of the outreach programme, the officials of the Islamic centre paid a courtesy visit on the emir of the Abuja Disabled Colony, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Muhammed Suleiman Katsina, who decried the plight of his subjects, and called on government and international development partners to emulate the International Centre for Islamic Centre and Education by addressing some of the critical needs of the community, which he highlighted to include: water, health care, good road network and education.
“In this community of physically challenged people, we need the government and international development partners in Nigeria to come to our aid. As you can see, the road to this community is in bad shape. We need water and healthcare services as well as schools to cater for the educational needs of our children.
“We are deeply grateful to the Islamic centre for this annual programme of free medical outreach for my people. We are overwhelmed by the kind gesture of the ICICE for providing free medical services to our members and their families. These are the kind of services that we want the government to provide for us. On behalf of the entire community of disabled persons in my domain, we thank the ICICE for their sacrifices and love to our members,” Katsina said.
In a chat with journalists, the director-general of the ICICE, Dr. Kabir Usman, represented by the director of Research, Consultancy and External Relations, Malam Garba Sani, said the Centre was at the disabled people’s colony at Karonmajiji community to render free medical services as part of its mandate of meeting the health needs of Nigerians.
Usman noted that the community is “largely neglected” by the government.
“We are here to provide free medical services as well as the distribution of food items and clothing to the disabled community of Karonmajiji by the ICICE OF Al-Noor Mosque, Abuja. This is a community that is largely neglected by either humanitarian support groups or the government itself and we happen to check and identify this community as a community that truly require our support.
“First of all, we take the personal data of the people and then we take their blood samples for malaria and typhoid tests as well as sugar levels, blood pressure and so on. When we do that, we then identify if there is any need for medical antidote; then we take the people to our doctors who give them medicines and our pharmacists dispense the medication for them. The estimate here is about 500 and 700 people; all disabled people and their families.
“After all these tests, we discovered that a lot of these people tend to be a lot fitter than some of our able bodied people. However, the other basic ailments like malaria are prevalent, and treatment is being dispensed to them.
“We came here twice last week for needs assessment. Medical needs are some of the pressing issues. In the course of our enquiries, we discovered a disabled person with a damaged leg, and he is being attended to at the National Hospital in Abuja.
“We call on the government and other humanitarian support groups to come forward and support this community,” Usman said.
Giving further details of the exercise, the leader of the medical outreach team, Dr. Amina Kumalia, said most of the patients that were attended to were suffering from malaria and peptic ulcers, adding that hypertension and diabetes were not common.
“Most of the patients we have seen are suffering from Malaria, peptic ulcer diseases, but hypertension and diabetes are not common so far with the patients that we have seen. They have skin infections, especially children and a few cases of upper respiratory tract infections.
“So, the government must come in to help them; this community is bedevilled by the problems of housing as well as medical care. Even now, we have extreme cases of individuals we took out to tertiary hospitals for treatment. So, there are a lot of cases that need amputation and treatment, which they cannot cater for.” th
About the ICICE
The ICICE established in 2012, focuses on interfaith dialogue, training in order to diffuse misconceptions in Islamic finance industry, science of Qur’an and Arabic language courses, Islamic cultural heritage and historical exhibition, art and craft skills development to the less-privileged youth, poverty eradication programme, children summer schools, scholarship programmes, among others.
