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Fund Stroke Awareness in Africa

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WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PROJECT? 

The focus of Acha Memorial Foundation’s MasterStroke project has been to educate locals and create awareness about stroke disease in Nigeria. Our vision is to reduce the number of death and disability caused by stroke disease in Africa by creating awareness about stroke prevention and helping people affected by stroke to access the right treatment facility and rehabilitation support.

Over the last few years, we have been involved in stroke awareness and education community engagement events. In the past two years, our community engagement efforts have been focused primarily on educating people about hypertension.  This is because hypertension remains one of the biggest causes of stroke in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

 We also provide support and guidance for people affected by stroke. We help them access the right facility for treatment or long-term rehabilitation support. Our advocacy work focuses on advocating decision makers for improved government stroke awareness and risk management services.

 The program currently runs across all the states and regions in Nigeria. Our events cover about 11 big cities in Nigeria and deliver content/messages in four local languages including English, Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo languages. 





WHY?
After losing his father to stroke, MacDonald Oguike (founder of the project) discovered that Stroke is the leading cause of death globally. Every two seconds, someone has a stroke, and unfortunately, many do not receive proper stroke care. Local people in his country of origin Nigeria do not have proper access and information about stroke disease.  

In Nigeria, one person suffers a stroke every 6 seconds - sadly only a few recover as many die or are permanently disabled for life!  

OUTCOMES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & SUCCESS
The successes of MasterStroke can be described in two categories – impact and perspective transformation. The impact ties back to the number of people the organization has touched and educated in the past two years. While the perspective transformation is captured in the positive feedback, it has received from all the organizations, and people MasterStroke has worked with.

Our partnership with many local organizations, non-profits, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and many medical professionals has helped to provide free blood pressure and sugar level test checks to many Nigerians. We have provided free blood pressure and sugar level checks to more than 5,500 Nigerians. 85% of people diagnosed with hypertension during these campaigns received guidance from medical professionals.  We have also reached 45,530+ people with lifesaving education about stroke prevention and treatment. Provide free counseling to 85% of people diagnosed with hypertension during their campaigns. 

In 2016 we were one of the few global organizations invited to Hyderabad, India by the World Stroke Organization (WSO) to provide feedback and help develop its Advocacy Toolkit.

In 2017, it ran another national blood pressure awareness campaign across 6 major states and 5 provinces in Nigeria (Kano, Benue, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, and Calabar). During this campaign, more than 300 people received free blood checks and those with high blood pressure were again directed to doctors for further treatments. Our use of digital and mobile technology has also been a success. For the social media campaign, the interaction with people all over Nigeria was remarkable. People shared their own stroke stories and reached out to us via our social media handles to ask about our program. From the physical events, we were awed by how many people showed up for our free blood pressure and blood sugar tests. It was good to see people take advantage of our charity events as these tests would cost $5-$10 in Nigerian hospitals.

Our activities also create job opportunities and careers for young Nigerians. Through the MasterStroke project, Acha Memorial Foundation has provided volunteer or long-term job opportunities for more than 50 Students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3vDcJWphdY&t=30s 

WHY WE NEED DONATIONS & SUPPORT
We are hoping to raise enough funds to continue the project stroke disease education and awareness activities. We also need funds to

      1.     Sponsor people (especially women and single mothers) suffering from stroke to access stroke rehabilitation programs. Our goal is to help these people especially young mothers recover from stroke and find a way to get their lives back on track

       2.     To educate an additional 500,000+ people about stroke through a “Know your blood pressure” online & offline campaign that will empower people to learn about how to monitor and manage their blood pressure so they can prevent hypertension & stroke.

      3.     Provide free blood pressure checks to more than 150,000 Nigerians and ensure 85% of those with hypertension meet and receive appropriate guidance, medical professionals.

      4.     Set up a hotline where people call to get information about stroke prevention & treatment. 

      5.     Create a technology platform that shows stroke treatment facilities and support groups in Nigeria. The technology has the potential to save many lives by reducing the time people spend looking for the right hospital. This technology will be made available in web, downloadable formats, and mobile app



VISION
The broader vision is to expand MasterStroke services to include coordinated programs that include intensive physiotherapy, speech/language and occupational rehabilitation therapy for stroke victims in Nigeria. This vision is fueled by the feedback we are receiving from stroke victims in the local communities we have reached out to.

Although feedback has been good overall and many people acknowledge the work we have done with awareness and education, there is more work to be done in the area of support for stroke victims. Some stroke survivors are looking for us to provide additional support such as stroke rehabilitation activities or creation of a stroke survivor’s network to facilitate conversations about how their recovery is going. With more funding, we could expand the services we offer to stroke survivors.

 Please make a special donation of whatever you can afford to help meet this goal and bring Stroke education and support to more than 500,000 in Africa. In advance, thank you for your contribution.

Visit the website: www.masterstrokeproject.com






IMPORTANT:  Follow our online community pages to see pictures, videos, and images of our community engagement work across Nigeria and Africa

Flickr Page.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143603336@N07/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/GoMasterStroke/

Twitter
/GoMasterStroke

Organizer

MacDonald Oguike
Organizer
Calgary, AB

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