For years, FCF Project Partner Family Care Association Nigeria has undertaken extensive medical programs throughout most of the country of Nigeria. In late 2009 Family Care undertook a two-year Malaria Control and Prevention program, which is coupled with a Free Rural Medical Aid program. This nationwide Malaria Control and Prevention program was initiated in 7 States with the sponsorship of ExxonMobil and in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health.

Malaria and tuberculosis together kill nearly as many people each year as AIDS, and the impact represents a severe drain on national economies. One of The Millennium Development Goals is to address the malaria scourge, and it is sub-Saharan Africa which accounts for ninety (90%) per cent of malaria deaths. These reasons alone fuel our determination to work toward scaling up prevention and treatment efforts in Nigeria, by far the African country with the largest population in the continent.

Our Malaria Control and Prevention program targets individuals of all ages who seek out the free services provided by Family Care. Special emphases though is placed on the most vulnerable groups; pregnant women (who account for 12.4% of women in rural Nigeria) and children under five years (who account for 17.4% of the rural population).

The Family Care program is well-underway at the time of this writing, the goals being to:

• Increase in the quantity and availability of medical services through malaria treatment, education and awareness.
• Enhance the capacity of local doctors to carry out key functions of malaria treatment which will result in better quality of life for host communities.
• Increase families, individuals and community’s knowledge of malaria prevention and practice of positive behaviors in regard to malaria control.
• Boost resume and work experience of medical doctors in Nigeria & the Niger Delta.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness though follow-up programs taking place in 2011.

During the first two years of the program, Family Care expects to educate and train well over 20,000 local health care workers and community agents on malaria prevention, screen 20,000 using Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits 20,000, provide free malaria treatment to 10,0000, as well as distribute over 50,000 treated bed nets. (Long Life Insecticide Treated Nets, or LLINs)

Simultaneously, local communities benefit from the following free services: medical consultation, including malaria blood testing and treatment, medication and nutritional supplements for infants and children, dental procedures, optical testing and eyeglasses, ophthalmic and surgical procedures, plus HIV/AIDS/STI awareness.

A typical week-long Malaria and Medical Project will have over 50 medical personnel in attendance working from dawn to dusk attending to the thousands who turn up for the free services. This medical team of volunteers has been assembled from around Nigeria for this task. Each donates a week of his or her time toward providing treatment and medicines to patients attending, people who live on a dollar or two a day and who would otherwise never be able to afford such services.

Health care workers and hospital staff are trained in Family Care malaria training workshops held in the weeks prior to a given medical camp getting underway. And as the sites where the medical projects take place are usually rural and lack most or all infrastructural conveniences that one normally takes for granted, getting all the necessary equipment in place and a working hospital setting established in whatever buildings can be procured is no small task.

Once underway, malaria blood tests, and treatment for those requiring it, is a key component, as is basic education on how to prevent malaria. And our grant allows each family to take home two LLIN bed nets. At each Health Care Project, 5,000 to 10,000 LLINs are distributed free-of-charge, as an ongoing precautionary means of malaria prevention.

These same services are taken to nearby village communities scattered within the Niger and Delta rivers, doctors and nurses venturing out by boat.

Working tirelessly from early morning until late at night, medical volunteers summon all their physical, mental and spiritual resolve to do their part in making the project a success. With pressure from the throngs of people begging to be the next one to benefit from free health care, to achieve maximum efficiency the entire operation must run like a well-oiled machine.

All those entering the property first receive a patient card, and meet with a general practitioner, and/or a pediatrician, dentist, optician, or optometrist or ophthalmologist as the case may be. During the course of  a week, the medical staff will likely handle 2700 consultations, in addition to the 1400 screened for malaria (and 800 treated).

After a diagnosis is made, patients are directed to the on-location pharmacy to collect their drug prescription. Or if surgical attention is necessary, they are screened for surgery. At any given Medical Camp, 100 complimentary surgeries may be performed, many of these to correct hernias, appendicitis, etc in addition to another 30 eye surgeries for cataracts and so forth.

Additionally, 600 optometric appointments may result in 500 pairs of eyeglasses given out), and a few hundred patients also receiving dental treatment.

As the attendees depart home after benefiting from the Family Care program, they often pause to thank the obviously overworked volunteers for providing them with the otherwise inaccessible and/or unaffordable medical care.

This is especially true of those who underwent life-altering surgeries, knowing full well that if the program hadn’t come to their village they may have continued to suffer with their condition indefinitely, resulting in a difficult and perhaps shortened life. For most it is therefore an once-in-a-lifetime experience.

From the perspective of the medical and volunteer personnel, the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment is indescribable. Seeing crying children now treated and calm, and adults walking away with a new strength and bounce to their step, many having recuperated from a surgery, some with double cataracts now with sight restored, and then experiencing those same individuals embracing their loved ones and turning to again thank you, is priceless!

Many of the medical volunteers comment that they had taken part in order to give, but realize that they have gained so much more in return, and so that in the end they cannot call their participation a sacrifice.