The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) medical outreach has reached over four million rural Nigerians in the last eight years, the NYSC national governing board chairman, Ambassador Fatima Balla Abubakar, has said.
Speaking at the flag off ceremony to mark the scheme’s 50th anniversary at Jahi 2 village in Abuja, Ambassador Abubakar, said the mobile clinic donated by the First Lady, Dr. Aisha Buhari, has greatly enhanced the scheme’s health intervention.
She said: “The HIRD programme was launched in 2014 with a view to ameliorating the difficulties faced by indigent Nigerians, especially the rural dwelling ones, in accessing quality health care. It was implemented through well planned medical outreaches with special focus on rural areas.
“Available records have shown that the programme, which is carried out every quarter of the year in all the states of the federation and the FCT, has brought succour to over four million beneficiaries, who could not have afforded medical bills,” she said.
The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, while declaring the outreach open, called on the scheme management not to relent in promoting the unity of the nation.
She said the donation of the clinic is to enhance the efforts of the scheme. “I am optimistic that the commemoration of the anniversary will continue to show the relevance of the scheme.”