By Elijah Ugani
The wife of the Governor of Cross River State, Dr. Linda Ayade has called on female medical doctors in the State to unite for the purpose of contributing their quota to the development of the State.
Linda Ayade represented by her aid Mrs. Rosemary Eneji, made the call during the cutting of the tape to commission the Well Woman Clinic, an initiative of the Medical Women Association, Cross River chapter.
In her words “let me use this opportunity to call on all medical women in the State to come together and form a force to see to the well-being of our people, for united we stand and divided, we fall.
“I want to see unity among you, whether past or present officials, let me commend the President for this bold step for keying into the fight against women and children wellbeing, I am particularly touched by the attention you have given to our adolescents, I congratulate you for obtaining a place for this clinic.”
Speaking further, Ayade called on women in the State to make good use of the clinic and noted that “the fight for women and children well-being is a fight that embraces all stakeholders which as my pet project, the Mediatrix Development Foundation has being in the forefront in this advocacy.”
On her part, the President of the Medical Women Association, Dr. Jacinta Okoi-Obuli noted that “as medical women, we care about the health of women and children, we have been involved in the health of women, cervical cancer screening, women face all kinds of abuses, but they can’t speak up, high rate of gender based violence, we need women to come up and tell us what they are going through.”
Furthermore Okoi-Obuli noted that “We are here to put our hands together not only for the women in Calabar, in the entire State, we need your support, what you see us do in Cross River State is the sacrifice from our salaries, we put our hands together so that we can move the State forward.”
The Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Stella Effiom thanked the association and stated that women have been relegated to the background for so long.
“Today, we can sit here and talk on issues that bother on us, I am very proud of the Medical Women Association for the well woman, your effort in cervical cancer cannot be over emphasized, Government cannot do it all alone, that is why you have continued to thrive.
Also, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong commended the association saying, “I had to provide the office space for the women to open the clinic considering the importance of the clinic to Cross Riverians, which is in line with the vision of the Governor to ensure the well being of all Cross Riverians.”
The Chairman of the occasion, Dr.Ogwu Ngim speaking earlier commended the effort of Medical Women Association for the initiative to set up this clinic and called the association to work with the Government to ensure enforcement of legislation on gender based violence as well as called on all to support the association.
He noted that “Government has a role to play in the provision of radiotherapy equipment, ambulance and a permanent site for the clinic. Let me commend the Governor for the flag off of the health insurance scheme, it is the right thing in the right direction, both Cross Riverians and non-Cross Riverians will benefit from it.”
The clinic is located at No. 2 Moore Road (opposite the High Court), Calabar Cross River State and will be open for four days in a week. It has a Corps Medical Doctor who is always on ground to attend to our women.
Services to be rendered include; Gender based victim care, medical checkup, HIV and hepatitis screening, family planning, cancer screening/vaccination and adolescent health services.
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