Special Olympics Nigeria Celebrates 2016 World Malaria Day

Special Olympics Nigeria over the weekend held a series of activities to celebrate the 2016 World Malaria Day.

The event which was held at St. Finbarrs’ College Akoka Lagos witnessed a Unified Soccer Match between athletes of Special Olympics Nigeria.

In her opening speech, the National Director of Special Olympics Nigeria, Naomi Saliu-Lawal, noted that despite its cure widely available, malaria remains a killer disease across the country and a major impediment to youth and sports development.

“This event is part of national efforts to put an end to this scourge through enlightenment and sports,” she stated

For   Programmes Coordinator, Special Olympics Nigeria, Yvonne Okoye, this initiative is a step in the right direction.

“With the support of partners like Exxon Mobil, we have achieved a lot in helping parents of children with special needs.

The event was held to educate parents on how to protect their children from killer diseases not only malaria, but diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, leukemia etc,” she added

The Special Guest of honour at the event and Chief Operating Officer of Soul Communications. Limited, Mojisola Saka, commended the effort of Special Olympics Nigeria.

She advised the athletes to take proactive steps to eradicate malaria  and stressed that Soul Communications Limited would continue to partner Special Olympics Nigeria as it has done over the years  to promote such worthy causes

The first unified soccer match was played for 30mins by unified team A and B. The match ended with the Team A side winning 2-1.

During the game the voluntary counseling and testing for malaria was carried out by officials and while there was also a family health forum.

The second unified match commenced at 12 noon and whilst it was played, there was a distribution of mosquito nets by the VCT team.

One of the parents in attendance, Mrs. Adeyinka, said she was happy to attend the event and has learnt a lot been that it was her first time to be in contact with the Special Olympics.

 She also thanked the Special Olympics team for organising the event as it will help her know more how to take care of her child.