Mrs Ladi Bantex, Wife of the Kaduna State Deputy Governor, says she has provided health tips to 500 aged women in Kaura Local Government Area of the state on how to manage high blood pressure.
Bantex told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Wednesday, that the women, 70 years and above from the three chiefdoms in the area, were reached through her NGO, Second Chance Initiative (SCI).
She explained that the exercise which took place at Bantex Centre, Manchok, in the area on Monday was conducted by health experts who found 110 of the 500 women to be hypertensive.
“Second Chance Initiative was able to procure drugs that will last a week for the 110 women found to be hypertensive.
“We equally provided them with milk and beverages which they need at their age and a little token to take them home.
“What we plan to do next is to sensitise the women on good dietary habit, given their age and health condition. This we believe will go a long way in sustaining their life.
“We need to do more because these women need our support for them to live quality life as 99 per cent of them cannot afford the needed drugs to keep them alive,” the governor’s wife said.
Bantex said while 40 of the women were aware of their condition, 70 had no idea they had high blood pressure.
According to her, the 70 new cases referred to the hospital were attended to by a physician and placed on drugs.
She called on other NGOs, civil society organisations and government agencies to collaborate with SCI to support aged women in the society.
Bantex said that SCI was specifically established to address societal challenges affecting the girl-child, particularly the dropouts, to give them a second chance in life.
“But we decided to extend our attention to the aged women because of the little or no attention given to such group of people in our society.
“There seems to be no intervention that targets the aged in our society, particularly the women.
“We are calling on development partners to begin to look into the plight of the aged and partner with local NGOs and civil society organisations to reach out to them.
“If supported and cared for, our old women would live happily and peacefully.”(NAN)