About 120 indigents in Ibadan have been enrolled on the Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme for one year.
The Ibadan Descendants Sisters’ Forum (IDSF) facilitated the enrolment on Monday at its third-anniversary event in Ibadan.
IDSF president and former Oyo State Head of Service (HoS), Alhaja Hamidat Agboola, said the event aimed to empower women and men in the lowest economic strata.
She said beneficiaries, made up of porters, or ‘Alabaru’, or ‘Alabo’, in Yoruba, were drawn from different markets in Ibadan.
“These people also wish to celebrate this season, but things might not be enough for them. So, we are reaching out.
“We want to give back to society; we contributed money among ourselves and received donations from friends and family.
“We put this programme together to be able to reach out to them, to give and empower them with the little we have,” Agboola said.
She said cash gifts, foodstuffs, textile materials, and household items were also presented to the beneficiaries.
According to the former HoS, before now, the beneficiaries did not know they could afford to care for themselves with the state health insurance scheme.
The Chairman, Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board (Christian Wing), Bishop Ademola Moradeyo, appreciated IDSF for the gesture, underscoring its importance during economic hardship.
He urged the beneficiaries to extend love to their neighbours and called on well-meaning Nigerians to support the government in lending hands to the plights of the less privileged.
“The government alone cannot do it. We all must take care of one another,” Moradeyo said.
Charging the beneficiaries, Prof. Asian Lanre-Abass, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan and a member of IDSF, emphasised the importance of training the children, especially in formal education.
She urged them to encourage their children to follow the right paths to greatness and shun social vices.
Two beneficiaries, Mrs Funmilayo Akinpelu and Mrs Folasade Ologunju, unanimously expressed their appreciation to the organiser, saying the gesture would help alleviate their situation.
