A Kaduna private hospital, Garden City Specialist Hospital on Sunday, in Kaduna, offered free HIV screening to 50 Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) children from Borno State.

The IDPs are at a Non-Governmental Organization, Arrida Relief Foundation of Nigeria, (ARFON) camp in Maraban Jos, Kaduna.

News Express learnt that the hospital has been offering free medical treatment to IDPs from the North-east for over four years.

Mrs. Tawassul Amir, Medical Director of Garden City Specialists Hospital said the kids have been undergoing treatment for trauma and frequent skin infection for the past two years, "so we decided to screen all of them for HIV. But, thank God, the results came back negative," she added.

Amir and her husband, a Sudanese medical doctor based in Kaduna, said the hospital has distributed anti-malaria drugs and other essential drugs to the children. She said her husband, co-founder of the hospital had severally escaped armed robbery attacks along Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road where he frequently offer free medical services to pregnant women and other less privileged patients in the area.

“We are doing it for the sake of humanity, so, there is no big deal about it,” she added.

Founder of ARFON Rabi Salisu Ibrahim, while appreciating the gesture, called on government, corporate organisation and wealthy individuals to invest in the welfare and care of IDPs, orphans, widows and less privileged in the society.

She said her organisation has also hosted the children to a Sallah treat at one of the children parks in Kaduna.

•Photo by garba Ahmed shows group photograph with the IDP kids at the hospital.

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