Coronavirus Pandemic
MUSLIM Coalition Against COVID-19 (MCAC) has received applauds from Nigerians, who benefitting from its palliative distributed to give succour to indigents suffering from the hardship caused by the lockdown.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal and State Governments have issued various lockdown orders aimed at curtailing the spread of the new coronavirus disease.
On Friday, through the weekend, the coalition said it distributed the relief packages in Lagos and Oyo States.
The Chairman, Publicity Committee of the coalition, Moshood Abiola, told NAN on Monday in Lagos that under the pilot phase, the non-discriminatory distribution train started in Bariga last Friday from where it moved to Makoko in Lagos Mainland, and later to Agege residents on Saturday.
On Sunday, he said the coalition’s team moved to Oyo State, where palliative was distributed in 10 local government areas.
“From today (Monday), the distribution will hold at Abuja (FCT) where the poor in the suburbs are targeted as beneficiaries.
“The relief distribution, which targets 1700 households under the first phase will be rounded off in Osun and Rivers this weekend,’’ he told NAN.
Abiola said the coalition would, thereafter, returns to the drawing board to expand its coverage to other parts of the country.
According to him, the initiative, which began over six weeks ago had seen over 52 Muslim organisations pulling resources together to procure the relief packages.
The committee chairman said the coalition, reached out to kind-hearted Nigerians to raise N500 million towards executing the relief distribution.
“As funds trickle in, they were deployed into procuring relief packages and personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers on the frontline of combatting the pandemic.
“The latest entrant into the coalition is the Jaiz Foundation, which on Friday, donated N2 million.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Medical Committee of the MCAC, Dr Salisu Ismail, said the coalition has mobilised medical and allied professionals to the front line in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease.
Ismail said the professionals comprised of 120 medical doctors, 150 nurses, 100 pharmacists, 100 laboratory scientists and 80 health record officers.
Others are 80 environmental health officers, 70 social workers, 50 biomedical engineers and 50 other supporting staff.
NAN reports that beneficiaries of the palliative got a pack containing 22kg of food items such as rice, beans, garri, sugar and salt.
Dr Lukman AbdurRaheem, Coordinator of the relief materials distribution said the relief packages were provided “without compromising the safety guidelines of the Governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Some of the Muslim organisations that initiated the coalition are then The Muslim Congress (TMC) and NASFAT in Lagos state, Dawah Front and Al-Mum’nnat in Oyo State and NASFAT and NACOMYO in Osun.
They also included Al-Usrah Inc. Port Harcourt in Rivers as well as NASFAT and FOMWAN in FCT. (NAN)
– May 11, 2020 @ 14:25 GMT |
Tags: COVID-19: Muslim Coalition receives accolade for distributing palliatives in Lagos Oyo
