By Dr Gbemisola Boyede | Founder/CEO
Just like every other organization in the world, our programme especially the community outreaches have been greatly impacted by the ongoing COVID19 pandemic crisis. As a result for the first time since 2016 we were unable to do our May Children's Day Community Medical Outreaches as we adhered to the WHO and Nigerian government NCDC guidelines on social distancing measures and avoidance of large gatherings as part of measures in curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
Despite not being able to do physical outreaches, Ask The Paediatricians Foundation has been in the frontline of the battle against Covid19 in Nigeria especially on our most powerful platform - Ask the Paediatricians Facebook group with over 630,000 members; that brings together parents and paediatricians and other health care professionals from more than 100 countries in the world.
We have seen a strong increase in the number of new members and have over 40,000 new members between March and May 2020 who are seeking reliable health information on Covid19. We have also seen increase in the number of posts and questions about Coronavirus. Faced with this influx, we launched special COVID-19 discussions to address the various concerns by members about the pandemic. We have had LIVE programmes on our Facebook, YouTube and lnstagram channels to raise awareness about the risks and issues of the Covid19 pandemic and to fight against inappropriate remedies.
One of the challenges that we identified during this period was the reluctance of parents to take sick children to hospitals and health care facilities due to concerns of contracting the Coronavirus. In as much as we answer several questions on what can be done at home; we know some cases require consultation with a medical professional beyond the generic advice given on the Facebook group. To address this, we launched in May a telehealth service via the Cliniko health practice software to allow parents consult with paediatricians and other health professionals via video consultations at moderate fees. This has been well-received and where apporpriate in-person consultation was also arranged by the health professionals. Due to the level of trust in the Ask the Paediatricians brand, the members of our community have been asking for our clinics for a long time. With the implementation of the telemedicine video consultation platform, we have been able to create this huge asset in the time when it is most needed during the COVID-19 crisis.
As a child-centred organization, we organized online celebrations to mark the 2020 Children's Day on our social media platforms. We organized several competitions to mark the week long events. The various competitions include the ATP Babies of the Year 2020 (Boys and Girls Categories for babies less than 3 years); ATP State Traditional Attire (Boys and Girls Categories) with no age restrictions; ATP 60s video presentations by children aged 3 - 14 years on how they have been keeping safe during the pandemic; and the 2-stage Quiz competitions for children in Senior Secondary Schools.
The ATP 2020 Children's Day Celebrations ended with a grand finale LIVE programme that lasted over 3 hours on Children's Day on the 27th May 2020 from 6pm online on our Facebook and YouTube channels simultaneously. We kickstarted with a keynote presentation on "How to Build the Potentials of Future leaders" by the CEO, Ask The Paediatricians Foundation, Dr Gbemisola Boyede. This segment was sponsored by Peak456 (Friesland Campina). Then we had the final Senior Secondary Hotseat Quiz on Coronavirus for Top5 from Stage 1. We ended the celebration by announcing and presenting gifts to winners of different categories for all the multiple competitions. We especially want to thank those who supported by donating some gifts in kind used as prizes. ATP gave cash gifts as well to the TOP3 of all the competitions. All Final Top10 are given Free Paediatrician Video Consultation vouchers worth N20,000 to be redeemed on the ATP Clinics platform.
Finally, we are very excited to be the winner for the second time running of the Social Media for Social Goods Award Africa 2020 Awards in the Health Category. This recognition is a testimony to how Ask The Paediatricians Foundation has been impacting the health of children in Nigeria and as stated in our acceptance speech; this award is dedicated to all Nigerian children who we pray for that they will live and not die. We look forward to that day when no Nigerian child will die from any preventable cause. We thank you also for supporting us and look forward to your continuous partnership in achieving that dream
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