YEDI, OVH Energy Seek Increased Awareness against Neglected Tropical Disease

Oluchi Chibuzor

The Youth Development and Empowerment Initiative (YEDI) and OVH Energy have called for more intervention and awareness on how to prevent and combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in underserved communities across the country.
NTDs are found in several countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and are especially common in tropical areas where people do not have access to clean water or safe ways to dispose of human waste.

NTDs are a group of diseases that cause substantial illness for more than one billion people globally and affect the world’s poorest people.
Speaking at a medical outreach programme in Lagos, recently, to mark World NTDs 2023, organised by YEDI in partnership with OVH Energy, the programme manager YEDI, Mr. Usen Asanga, said massive awareness on the diseases were needed urgently.
He stressed that NTDs are really disturbing the people they work for; “you know we serve adolescents and other young people in underserved communities in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Rivers,  Ogun, Kano and Abuja.”

“We have found out that NTDs are also affecting our target population and so we feel we need to educate them and sensitive them. NTDs, especially for young people, lead to low productivity; they do not perform well in school and are a very critical area we need to intervene.

“We do have a programme where we do a comprehensive education for young people in schools. By the time they finish with that curriculum the child knows basic things about NTDs and how they have been transmitted, prevented and can identify some symptoms,” he said.
Commenting on some of the gaps that made the diseases neglected over the years, Asanga explained, “that lack of information is critical as a lot of people attribute it to some fetish beliefs.
For the Head, Corporate Security and Community Affairs, OVH Energy, Mr. Victor Okpo community development programme ought to be beyond CSR projects, but investments.