The maiden community outreach (know your status campaign) of the Fresh Life Care Foundation took place on the 27th of July, 2013 at the Lugbe community, a community in the suburbs of Abuja.
The Lugbe village is a community that is located along the airport and over time the population of this place has increased. According to history particularly oral tradition the village was founded by a hunter who is said to have migrated from a place in Niger state, when he arrived there he didn't find animals, just birds and hence came the name "Lugbe" which means land of birds.
The aim of the Lugbe outreach was to sensitize, test and counsel the people on HIV/AIDS. The Fresh Life Care Foundation was not alone in this course as it was backed up by various organizations, without these organizations the FLCF wouldn't have recorded the success it did. These organizations were;
· Society for Family Health Nigeria
· Institute of Human Virology Nigeria[2]
· Orol Foundation
· CFHI[3]
The Lugbe community due to population increase has been faced with various societal problems such as unemployment and drug abuse which has been a bane in the Lugbe community. These problems have affected the way they take care of themselves as regards health. The unemployment factor is very important because it implies that they would not be able to take care of themselves well when faced by a serious health challenge.
This is a very serious problem because the people in the community already infected by the virus would not be able to get access to proper medical health care which could lead to the further spread (negligence or ignorance) of the virus or death.
The Outreach of July started about 11a.m with the representative of the Society for Family Health demonstrating the use and techniques of the female condoms to people of the Lugbe community and everyone present there.
Immediately after that, the FLCF and Orol Foundation team members quickly mobilized for a rally in the community which was led by the FLCF and Orol Foundation Coordinators and it lasted for about 2 hours.
Various mediums were used to get the attention of the community to get them to come and know their HIV/AIDS status. Music, role plays, fliers and talks were used to get the people tested and counselled.
To be noted was that the various organizations that supported the outreach came with various materials that were used to reach out to the community such as condoms and written materials. By the time the outreach ended about 3000 condoms and 100's of different types of (written) materials were distributed in the community.
The Audience cut across all segments of the Lugbe community which comprises of house wives, shop owners, students, okada riders and everyone that could be reached in the community as a whole.
Before the rally came to an end the people had already begun testing at the venue setup for that purpose and the venue was the AMAC Primary HealthCare Centre which is in the heart of the community. The turnout was not much as anticipated because there was a similar outreach of the same sort occurred in the community only two weeks ago.
In all about 80 people got tested and were counselled about the HIV/AIDS virus. To be taken into serious consideration was the fact that the Lugbe community were reminded and re – orientated about the virus and ways to fight the epidemic to a standstill.
It is recommended that a rehabilitation centre should be made for the people already infected with the HIV/AIDS virus in the Lugbe community and organizations which empower youths with skills should also visit Lugbe to fight the unemployment situation in the community.
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