The Chairman of NaijAid, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian charity organisation, Dr Kayode Babalola has appealed to the government to assist them in expanding their vision to educate Nigerian youths and the larger society on the importance of applying first aid on health-related issues.
He stated this was stated during a safe live intervention programme held recently for youths in Lagos.
The organization, which is in partnership with Health Aid Charity, an international organization, believes that the seminar would help to propagate the idea of basic life support and equip the youths with basic first aid skills to help save lives.
He added that the organization has been self-funded for the past ten years and would be ready to partner with the government to bring skills to a larger society to increase their knowledge of basic life support.
The organization, he stated, observed deficiency in the youth, which needs to be addressed in basic life support and first aid CPR.
He added that the participants were brought from different parts of Nigeria to equip them with lifesaving techniques.
He said the organization was aware of the participant’s layman nature and lacked the skill to apply first aid in an emergency to first reduce visitation to hospital or dying.
Also elaborating on the event, Mrs. Lanre Nehan-Babalola, a UK-certified fitness and wellbeing coach who had earlier taken the participants through lifesaving techniques and the importance of first aid in an emergency before people visited the hospital for health delivery distinguished between the primary and secondary surveys.
She pointed out that society didn’t understand the importance of first aid, as they are used to visiting the hospital for health care delivery.
She noted further that society in the olden days applied first aid at home for most illnesses without knowing the scientific reason for doing that, as they do cook some herbs to help reduce inflammation in the body without knowing the reason.
Noting that First Aid has been the tradition, she believes as modernization comes, it changes the way people look at treating themselves as it requires, importantly, the need to first visit the hospital for treatment.
She blamed society for not culturally understanding the importance of first aid as a primary need before visiting the hospital when an emergency occurred, except on the issues of healthcare delivery.
She took time to educate participants on the medical importance of observation as part of primary surveys and steps to take when the victim is not responding, which she referred to as secondary surveys.
Speaking at the event, the Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Mobolaji Ogunlende, who was a guest at the event, commended the organizers for the lifesaving intervention.
He felt happy about the interactive and educative nature of the programme and believed that every young participant would leave the programme better.
While emphasizing his total support for the program, he reemphasizes the commitment of the present government in the State with its popular acronym, THEME plus AGENDA, aimed at social inclusion, gender equality, and the youth.
He stated further that, “for those that are aware of our THEMES Plus agenda, the plus is social inclusion, gender equality, and the youth, which is what we have seen played out at the event. Health is wealth and it is everything. It is what the NaijAid team is teaching our youths- basic first aid and the need to survive”.
Ogunlende also commended the organizers for changing the narrative while taking participants through basic needs to save lives, which if allowed to continue to thrive, the result would be better for the community
He urged “the participants to make proper use of the all-important knowledge. They have been given the basic knowledge required to save lives. They need to ensure that they use it and speak about it. The whole idea is to keep our youth engaged”.
