Esteem concludes two-day silver jubilee medical outreach in Kabusa

After taking free healthcare to Jahi on the opening day, Esteem Learning Centre concluded its two-day silver jubilee medical outreach in Kabusa on Sunday, where students, alumni and volunteer medical professionals brought consultations, medicines, cancer screening, health education and food support to residents and children at the Al-Yatama Da’awah Foundation orphanage home, in what the school says reflects 25 years of nurturing compassion alongside academic excellence.

By Abdullahi Yusuf

For Esteem Learning Centre, the final day of its silver jubilee medical outreach was never intended to be only about treating illness. It was about demonstrating what the school believes is the true measure of education.

On Sunday, the Abuja-based institution concluded the two-day humanitarian initiative organised to commemorate its 25th anniversary, extending free medical consultations, medicines, cancer screening, health education, food support and clothing to about 400 residents and vulnerable beneficiaries of Kabusa, including children at the Al-Yatama Da’awah Foundation orphanage and other members of the surrounding community.

The exercise followed Saturday’s outreach at Jahi Phase 1, where over 200 hundred residents similarly benefited from free healthcare services delivered by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and other medical volunteers.

But unlike many anniversary celebrations centred on ceremonies alone, Esteem said the outreach reflected a philosophy it has sought to cultivate over the past quarter of a century, that education should produce graduates who leave school with a commitment to serving humanity.

“We are not only celebrating 25 years of education, we are also celebrating 25 years of teaching and nurturing young people who will become the leaders of tomorrow,” the school’s Director, Alhaji Musa Bukar Sani, said.

He said the idea for the medical outreach emerged through the Child2Child Charity Foundation, the school’s humanitarian initiative through which students contribute towards projects designed to assist vulnerable communities.

The outreach, he said, was only one part of the school’s silver jubilee programme, but perhaps the one that most visibly reflected the values it has sought to instil over the past 25 years.

Standing among volunteers and beneficiaries in Kabusa, Alhaji Bukar said seeing communities receive specialist healthcare outside conventional hospital settings was deeply fulfilling.

“The hospital has come to them,” he said, noting that several consultant physicians who ordinarily attend to patients in major hospitals had volunteered their time to provide free services within the community.

He described the initiative as another milestone in the school’s long tradition of encouraging students to identify societal needs and respond through practical intervention rather than charity alone.

Recalling one such project, he said students who visited a rural community in Nasarawa State years earlier discovered children trekking long distances because there was no nearby school.

Instead of limiting their intervention to relief materials, they raised funds through additional contributions and built a school, which was later handed over to the state government for operation.

For the students, the outreach was more than a silver jubilee activity. It was a lesson in the kind of responsibility the school has sought to instil over the past 25 years.

Assistant Head Boy, Abdullahi Umar Muhammad, described the exercise as evidence that Esteem measures success not only by academic achievement but by the willingness of its students to serve others. He said the Child2Child Charity Foundation had taught pupils to see charity as a lifelong responsibility rather than a school project, adding that wherever they find themselves after graduation, they are expected to carry that culture of service into their universities, workplaces and communities.

He said spending the day among vulnerable families in Kabusa had offered lessons that no classroom could provide, recalling encounters with residents who had lived with untreated medical conditions simply because they could not afford care.

Beyond the consultations, medicines and food distributed during the outreach, he said the experience had shown him that “even a small act of kindness can restore hope”, adding that if he were asked what distinguishes Esteem after 25 years, his answer would be that the school celebrates its milestones by investing in people rather than itself.

Another student volunteer from SS2, Isah Ahmadu Ali, said the outreach had deepened his appreciation for both good health and the responsibility to support those facing hardship. Reflecting on his encounters with vulnerable residents, including a young girl who required urgent medical attention after collapsing, he said the experience reinforced the importance of gratitude, compassion and service.

He expressed hope that beneficiaries would leave not only with medicines and food but with renewed hope, adding that the Child2Child tradition was one students inherit on entering Esteem and one they are expected to preserve long after leaving the school.

Among those volunteering were former students Muhammad Aliyu Oga and Aliyu Aliyu Oga, who said the culture of service introduced during their years at Esteem had continued to shape their lives beyond graduation. Returning to support the outreach, Muhammad said it was an opportunity to “give back to society”, while Aliyu expressed hope the Child2Child Charity Foundation would continue to grow, arguing that even modest contributions could transform another person’s life.

Healthcare professionals who volunteered for the exercise said the outreach addressed a growing need for preventive healthcare, particularly among communities where access to medical services remains limited.

Mr Kamaluddin Sanusi, a nurse from the School of Post-Basic Oncology Nursing at National Hospital Abuja, said the programme combined medical consultations with public education on diseases that often go undetected until advanced stages.

Alongside routine consultations and treatment, residents received blood pressure and blood sugar checks, while specialist teams conducted clinical breast examinations and educated women on self-screening for breast cancer.

“One of the misconceptions people have is that cancer is a death sentence, but the truth is that many patients come to hospital late. Early detection and early treatment give much better outcomes,” Sanusi said.

Comparing the two outreach locations, he said Jahi recorded mostly adult participants, while Kabusa attracted entire families, with parents bringing children alongside elderly relatives for medical attention.

The medical outreach concludes one phase of Esteem Learning Centre’s silver jubilee celebrations. According to the school’s director, activities marking the 25th anniversary will continue with a Qur’an Walimah, speech and prize-giving ceremony, and a 25th anniversary alumni luncheon later this month.

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