NMA Offers Free Medical-outreach to 470 Special-needs Students, Staffs in Kwara
By Fatima Mohammed-Lawal
Ilorin – The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Kwara Chapter on Wednesday organised a free medical outreach for over 400 students and over 70 teachers of the Kwara State School for Special Needs, Ilorin.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the outreach is part of activities marking the 2026 Physicians’ Week, with the theme: “Securing the Future of Medicine in Nigeria.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the outreach, the Chairman of NMA-Kwara, Dr Suleiman Rotimi, said the charity day was part of the association’s way of giving back to the society.
Rotimi said the association donated food items and sanitary items to the school in addition to the medical outreach.
“What we are doing today is totally free for the members of staff and the students of this school and it’s part of our activities marking this year’s Physicians’ Week.
“Apart from the members of staff, we are also conducting the same for the students who have one or two challenges to see how we can help.
“We have come with specialists, the ophthalmologists are here and the ENT surgeons are also here,” he said.
Rotimi assured that the association would return for a larger outreach, noting that Kwara would host the National Physicians’ Week in 2027.
Also speaking, the Vice-Chairman of the association and Chairman, Physicians’ Week 2026, Dr Salihu Olaitan, explained that “the charity outreach is a major highlight of the week.
“We have over 400 students in this school and over 70 teachers and we are hoping to conduct health checks for all of them,” he said.
Olaitan said the outreach included screening for hypertension and diabetes, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) examination and ophthalmological screening for eyes.
He explained further that the association also donated drugs to the school clinic and food items to students in the hostel as part of giving back to the community.
“This is a way of NMA giving back to the community by also improving the health of the citizens,” he said.
In her reaction, the Principal of the Kwara State School for Special Needs, Mrs Rashida Kayode, commended the NMA for conducting a free medical outreach for students and staff of the school.
She described the outreach as a long-awaited intervention that addressed the real needs of the school community.
“It is such a wonderful day for us because this is what we have been expecting for long,” she said.
The principal said staff and students hardly have time for routine medical checks due to the demands of running the school.
Kayode also commended the association for also donating perishable and consumable goods to the school in spite of the medical outreach.
She urged other medical groups to emulate the NMA by including the school in their social responsibility programmes.
“What we need from the society is empathy. Let them have our feelings that these people too are human beings and they are not the ones that chose to be like this,” she said.
Kayode further said that neglecting the health needs of persons with special needs amounts to denying them their rights.
NAN reports some of the food items donated includes bag of rice, vegetable oil, yam, beans, salt, seasoning cubes, among others.
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