A healthy nation, they say, is a wealthy nation. Another pop- ular saying puts it even more succinctly – health is wealth. It is, perhaps, for this reason that the First Lady of Anambra State, Mrs Nonye Soludo, launched a healthy living campaign in the state shortly after her husband, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, was sworn in as governor. The health campaign: ‘Healthy Liv- ing with Nonye Soludo’, according to the First Lady, was aimed at teaching Ndi Anambra and other Nigerians how to lead a positive lifestyle in order to stay healthy. At a media chat with select journalists at the Governor’s Lodge in Amawbia, Akwa South LGA sometime last year, the First Lady said that the health of her people was more important to her than every other thing and as such should come first because it’s healthy people that could enjoy social services and other benefits from the government and elsewhere.
She said that she had observed over the years that many people in the country engaged in lifestyles that impacted negatively on their health and general wellbeing, and that she was determined to guide them through the positive path of living as much as she could, vowing to get Ndi Anambra and other Nigerians inculcated with healthy living habits that would do them a world of good. “For me, for us to achieve a liveable and prosperous homeland, we must be healthy because health is wealth. That is the greatest wealth we can talk about. That is the greatest wealth I know,” she had said. The First Lady disclosed that ‘Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo’ had about six segments, namely: nutrition, fitness, basic skills, environmental and personal cleanliness among others. “We are also teaching the children to flee from drugs, cultism and such other social ills. We teach them sex education,” she added.
To achieve her targets, Mrs Soludo established clubs in various secondary schools across the state through which she promoted her healthy living campaign; saying that the idea was to “catch them young.” She argued that healthy living was for everybody but most especially for children, students, youths and women. “Our mission is actually to mobilise everybody. We want to make it a lifestyle. And with that, we can really do a lot,” she stated. Put more clearly, the First Lady’s health campaign looks at the social system of the country, the people’s lifestyles, especially as they touch on what they eat, drink, wear; their etiquette and general attitudes towards life; the environment, the value system and everything.
She often points out that these form part of the foundation upon which every progressive society is built. This health campaign has, no doubt, started yielding fruits in the state. People have, at different fora, confessed how their observance and implementation of Mrs Soludo’s teachings have impacted their health and that of their various families positively. In fact, one public servant narrated at a social gathering recently how his partner who had been fat had trimmed down because she was following and implementing the First Lady’s posts on social media on how to lead a positive lifestyle in order to maintain a clean health.
He revealed that he too had joined his partner having seen the positive impacts it’s making in her life. Another participant at the event revealed that no member of his family had been to the hospital lately because the positive feeding habits and hygiene practices being preached by the governor’s wife had been guiding them. Testimonies like these are many. As part of that healthy living campaign, Mrs Soludo launched what she called Pad Banks in the state. She did so at a modest ceremony she organised to commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child last year. The banks, which would be stock with the women’s product, according to the First Lady, would be established in over 400 secondary schools across the state to promote menstrual hy- giene among schoolgirls.
She argued that accessibility to “primary hygiene needs like sanitary pads remains a major concern in rural homes” and that it “gets even worse when menstrual emergencies break out in schools.” She said that it was for that reason that she resolved to “intervene where it matters the most.” She announced that at the beginning of every academic term, sanitary pads would be distributed to all the secondary schools where the Pad Banks would be established. The idea, according to her, was to “restore girl child confidence and beat down stigmas arising from menstrual emergencies” and also to “create a perfect environment for every girl child to grow happily in without having to be scared of what will happen next.”
Many women have commended this initiative, saying that the First Lady’s intervention came at the right time considering the state of the country’s economy and the cost of the aforementioned product. They were confident that the initiative would make great impacts. Apart from her health campaigns, the kind-hearted woman has kept herself busy with issues concerning the motherless babies and the orphanages in the state. At the last count, she had reportedly visited about 39 orphanages in the state, providing necessary support to ensure the comfort, care and safety of their inmates. In fact, during preparatory activities to last year’s Christmas celebration, Mrs Soludo went round the orphanages distributing cash and various food items such as bags of rice, beans, tubers of yam, cartons of milk, chocolates, toiletries and others.
There have also been free healthcare services rendered to poor and indigent people who ordinarily wouldn’t have been able to foot the bills of the medical services rendered to them as some of them cost millions of naira. Interestingly, her health campaign didn’t start when she became the First Lady. She disclosed that she had been on it for more than 10 years now and had been touching people’s lives positively with it. Indeed, Mrs Nonye Soludo is doing great work in Anambra at the moment and should be supported and encouraged to do more.
Odogwu writes via obinnaodogwu77@gmail.com
