The Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) has called for regular medical checkups for women in order to live healthy lives and long enough to reap the fruits of their labour.
The Ondo State Acting Chairperson, Comrade Tola Gbadamosi, made the call during the association’s programme on Women Health held in Akure on Wednesday.
Gbadamosi, who said women should create time for enough rest and chilling-out once a while as done by the men, urged women to avoid unnecessary physical, emotional and psychological stress, which could increase the level of their blood pressure.
“Women should create time to cater for their health, particularly when they are ageing, so as to have enough strength to meet the challenges ahead of them and sustain their homes”, she said.
The State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr. Adebummi Osadahun, charged women to take their health as a matter of priority and should always remember their place in the society because the slogan, “No Woman No Nation”, has been changed to “No Woman, No Generation”.
Osadahun explained that ageing in women is not a disease but a natural phenomenon, which is bound to happen to every woman as she advised against over thinking to avoid increase in blood pressure.
She advised NAWOJ to always invite men to participate in such programmes so that they would also be sensitized and to understand why their wives’ should be given special consideration and allowed proper rest rather than adding more to their challenges.
The State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Prince Leke Adegbite, advised women to create time for themselves to make them more active in the society.
Adegbite applauded the acting chairperson for her first outing as he described the programme as beneficial considering the nature of women challenges, particularly those in the male dominated professions like security and the media, which do not see women as different from their male counterparts.
The NUJ chairman appreciated Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for improving the lives of journalists by paying over N60million of the accumulated retirement gratuity of the Owena Press Limited, which does not exclude the women.
In a goodwill message, DSC Yomi Agbede from the office of Anti-Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration of the NSCDC advised on the need to change the Psychiatric hospital’s name to Health Care Institution so that it could address women mental health issues.
Representative of the State Police Commissioner, Bukola Fadimoye, urged participants to further educate women in their various fields because depression is real and also affects children.
While explaining that the closer women are to their children, the easier it is to identify a child undergoing depression, Fadimoye charged people to know their rights and to always fight for themselves and not to wait untill the security personnel fights for them.
The representative of the State Commandant of NSDC, CDC Olubummi Olakanse, charged NAWOJ to either take the programme as an annual project or organise it on a quarterly period and be taken to the grassroots.
Olakanse said women should eat early, be happy while eating, be patient and calm, avoid unnecessary thinking, and pay more attention to their health.
Speaking on women mental health, Mrs Temidayo Falade, FCA, expressed happiness that the programme will further increase the awareness of importance of health to the people.
Falade described depression as the most deadly mental health issue where awareness remains the first solution.
Another resource person, Mr Oluyomi Daniels who is the National Sales Manager of Sam Pharmaceutical Limited, spoke on Peptic Ulcer and the use of anticid.
Daniels said treatment of Peptic Ulcer can be tackled by reversing the causative agents among which he mentioned as stomach acid, use of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and H Pylori, as well as the use of medications like Proton Pump inhibitors (PPI).
He advised women above 45 years not to rush out of bed when they wake up in the morning but sit up on the bed for a while before getting out of bed finally.
