An NGO, Volunteers of Medicaid Cancer Foundation, a brainchild of Kebbi State Governor’s wife, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, has disbursed relief materials to flood victims in the state.
Mallam Yahaya Sarki, Special Adviser to Gov. Atiku Bagudu on Media, made this known in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Birnin Kebbi on Saturday.
Sarki said: “Volunteers of Medicaid Cancer Foundation, a brainchild of the wife of Kebbi State Governor, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu has swung into action to reach out to flood victims in the state.
“The palliative followed a devastating flood that destroyed farmlands, crops, houses, and other properties, thereby rendered many communities homeless.
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“Officials and volunteers of Medicaid Cancer Foundation have set the pace for other NGO by reaching out to the victims with relief assistance.
“The Medicaid team defied the difficult terrain, using canoes to get to communities to distribute palliatives to the victims comprising women and children. Many refuse to leave their homes despite evacuation orders by the government.”
According to him, the first place of the call to distribute food, water, drinks, and clothing by the NGO was the Wabbaku community in Birnin Kebbi Local Government Area, where the entire village was submerged by flood.
The Village Head of Wabbaku, Hakimi Maisaje-Wabbaku told the Medicaid team that people in the village were in dire need of assistance as their houses have collapsed.
Maisaje-Wabbaku lamented that the well which used to be their source of drinking water was destroyed and contaminated by the flood.
An official from Medicaid Cancer Foundation, Hajiya Hadiza Kola advised them to always boil water before drinking.
She used the opportunity to call on civil society organizations to render assistance to the affected victims particularly those in Jega, Argungu, and Gwandu.
“This is a humanitarian disaster and the government cannot be left to bear the burden alone.
“There is a need for urgent environmental clean up to reduce water-borne diseases like cholera, malaria, and typhoid,” Kola advised.