(Lokoja)
Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has provided emergency food palliatives to 400 Persons Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWH) to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in kogi state.
The organisation said it had also provided 70 hand-washing apparatus to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as security, Media, religious bodies, youth council, markets, motor parks and groups in the state.
Duaglobalnews reports that the intervention was in collaboration with Kogi-based Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Initiative for Grassroots Advancement (INGRA).
Mr Temitope Orogbemi, AHF Team Lead in the state disclosed this while presenting the palliatives to the beneficiaries at the premises of the Ministry of Health in Lokoja.
Orogbemi said that through the CSOs, the Foundation would be reaching out to about 1,000 people living with HIV with food palliatives in the area.
He said that other groups and communities would also be provided with hand-washing apparatus to be mounted at strategic locations and in various MDAs and in different local government areas in the state.
Mr Hamza Aliyu, Executive Director, INGRA, speaking at the occasion, noted whereas the COVID-19 palliative came from public and private sectors, none had been targeted specifically at the most vulnerable and indigent persons whose immune systems were very low.
“We think that we need to be strategic in sending out our palliatives so that those who really need them get them.
“The first component of the emergency support is that, we are providing food palliatives for 400 persons living with HIV and AIDS because we are looking at those who are vulnerable and indigent.
“We have 400 packs of food palliatives, including rice, beans, beverages, oil such ingredients as as sachets of tomato pastes and all those things put together in each bag is a pack that should be able to carry a family of four for a week.
“We are providing this because we feel nutrition is one aspect that they lack and many of them do not have enough and could hardly adhere to their drugs and If you don’t have drug adherence, the treatment will not be successful,” he said.
The other component and arm of the support according to him, is to provide hand-washing and hygiene apparatus to the stakeholders and organisations who have large congregation of persons around their areas.
He said said that each of the 40-litre and 21-litre containers and buckets contained hand-washing liquid soaps and facemasks for the stakeholders, adding that the 40 litre containers were for environments with larger population of people.
The online publication reports that representatives of various MDAs and groups who spoke at the occasion commended AHF, INGRA, the State Government and other groups for being in forefront of alleviating hardship occasioned by COVID-19.
