The Lagos State Government said Monday that its ongoing outreach will reach at least 50,000 residents in order to mitigate the effects of economic hardship on Lagosians.
The outreach, dubbed ‘Alafia Eko’, began yesterday and will span six health districts, with specified locations for each.
The state administration also stated that the second outreach phase will begin on June 6, with each health district hosting four outreach events in the first phase.
Dr. Kemi Ogunyemi, Special Advisor to the Governor on Health, explained the significance of the programme and stated that each event will target 1,000 citizens, totaling nearly 25,000 individuals for the first phase.
Ogunyem said, “The whole essence of this is to ensure that all the citizens in Lagos get access to affordable and quality healthcare. With all the economic hardship that we felt was going on months ago, Mr. Governor spoke to his cabinet, which included me, to find out ways in which we can help our citizens and make things a little bit easier for them.
“So we came up with Eko Cares, which consists of Onje Eko, which started a few months ago.
“Then the Ministry of Health came up with Alafia Eko because we realised that drugs were getting more expensive, people were staying at home, and they couldn’t afford to even come to the doctors.
“And then we have education, where there is free registration for students, and also transportation, where there is a reduction in the cost of transportation.”