Pretonia Humanitarian Outreach has partnered with Djulieplace to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week and World Diabetes Day.

The event, supported by Pretonia Care Consult and Wellness Hub and Iyiola Medical Consult which held recently at the Olambe Community Town Hall, was themed, “Grassroots Women in Business: Understanding Health and Business Ethics.”

The maiden edition of the outreach which witnessed a large turnout of women and few men from communities in Olambe, had participants enjoying free screening for Diabetes and High Blood Pressure. They were also led through diverse exercises to keep fit.

In her lecture focusing on World Diabetes Day awareness, Dr Oluwatoyin Ayelotun, gave an overview on diabetes prevention and several wellness tips. She taught participants in explicit terms how to identify symptoms of diabetes, its prevention and treatment.

Dr. Ayelotun who emphasised the importance of going for screening or medical check up in recognised hospitals, noted that the essence of the programme was to help participants understand how to live quality life and prevent terminal illnesses particularly, stroke.

According to her, diabetes and HBP more often go hand in hand adding that knowing how to stay healthy was key to prevention. She condemned the idea of people tasting their urine to test for diabetes, saying that urine was a waste product and should be tested in the hospital and not with the mouth.

The programme also featured panel discussion on “Building Sustainable ethical Businesses”. This session was handled by the co-founder of Pretonia Humanitarian Outreach, Mrs Julie Obi. Mrs Obi disclosed that the need to help women improve on their well being, informed the decision to include lessons on business ethics in the outreach.

“We discovered that many women run businesses for years unethically. So, I showed them how they can take their businesses to a higher level by getting them registered and having a business account to be well positioned for funding. We also taught them financial literacy to enable them know how to separate their personal money from that of their business,” she explained.

Speaking during the health event, founder/president of Pretonia Humanitarian Outreach, Mrs Precious Mafiana, said the major aim of the outreach was to educate women on how to take care of themselves.

Mrs. Marfiana explained that she was motivated to start the outreach because women are deprived of so many basic necessities of life in their communities. Many women according to her, are living in ignorance including the educated ones who hardly have means to improve their lives.

She said, “Bearing in mind that many women need to be empowered, I decided to start from the grassroots, to bring them together and enlighten them so that it becomes easy to help them start or grow businesses. This outreach is also designed to teach them how to take care of themselves. Women should know that even while making money, you have to also take care of yourself to have sound mental health in order to run the business well. This is why we came up with the theme, “Understanding Health and Business Ethics.”

The Outreach, founded in October this year according to her, also “Joined the world in celebrating World Global Egg Day during which they visited schools to enlighten children on the nutritional value of egg. This second programme is focused on women.

A cross section of Olambe Women at the Pretonia Humanitarian Outreach health programme at Olambe Community Town Hall Lagos.

The sugar and BP tests are free, to encourage more women to come out and get tested. From the findings so far, a lot of women are hypertensive. Many among them have no money so, after the exercise, we will be giving them free drugs. We are also teaching them that its not about drugs all the time. As a nutritionist, I know some little local things or nutrition that can keep one healthy. By the grace of God, in February, we are planning a mega outreach to impact more women. I decided to begin here in Olambe because charity begins at home.”

She expressed sadness over cases of women slumping and dying which she blamed on HBP and the high level of poverty especially in remote villages, saying “Many women are existing and not living in this Lambe.”

She then called on government, organisations and philanthropists to support their workshops and training programmes for Olambe women.