John Korede Akinola from The Adewunmi Desalu Parkinson’s Foundation: https://desaluparkinsonsfoundation.org tells us how their exercise programme is helping people across Nigeria.
John Korede Akinola is Programs Manager at The Adewunmi Desalu Parkinson’s Foundation (ADPF), a non-profit supporting people with Parkinson’s and their families across Nigeria. He spoke to our Insight and Engagement Manager Fiona Montague about why their Parkinson’s exercise programmes are having such a big impact on the community, as well as discussing the biggest challenges faced by people with Parkinson’s in Nigeria, including accessibility and the rising cost of medication.
“For people with Parkinson’s, we have just one centre in the whole of Nigeria,” John reveals at the beginning of his call with Fiona.
This shocking fact is even more staggering considering Nigeria has a population of over 220 million people, with estimates of Parkinson’s prevalence potentially in the hundreds of thousands, but this only makes the sheer breadth of the services offered by The Adewunmi Desalu Parkinson’s Foundation (ADPF) all the more impressive:
“First and foremost, we provide a pathway for diagnosis to referral,” John explains. “We reach out to people with Parkinson’s that are yet to confirm their disease diagnosis, through community outreach, and once they come to us we refer them to a neurologists at the teaching hospital just to ensure that they get the right diagnosis. We also have a physiotherapy service that will give an assessment and prepare a treatment or a rehabilitative care plan, which is tailor-made for each individual. Then we have other programmes, that we call rehabilitative programmes, like dance therapy, non-contact boxing, table tennis, walking football, a low-impact gym. And we have support groups…”
The foundation has also recently hosted a table tennis tournament, which was very popular, and last year they and Parkinson’s Africa co-hosted the Walking Football Parkinson’s Cup 2023, the first walking football and Parkinson’s awareness tournament in Nigeria. But while walking football has proven hugely popular for both men and women who take part in the centre’s Parkinson’s exercise programmes, funding issues are currently preventing them from running full walking football sessions. https://www.parkinsonsafrica.org/news/news-posts/the-walking-football-parkinsons-tournament
“There are so many programmes that we have in the pipeline that we cannot even implement! For instance, the walking football — I’ve explained how excited the members are when they play walking football. It’s something that they would want to do over and over again. Once we have funding for all of this, there is a lot we can do with the programmes — and the Parkinsons community in Nigeria, they are willing, they are ready! They want to participate in all of this.”
For more information about Parkinson’s exercise and sport, visit our Sports & Exercise Hub. Find out more about the Adewunmi Desalu Parkinson’s Foundation (ADPF) on their website, where you can also make a donation to help continue their work.
FULL STORY at source: https://parkinsonseurope.org/2024/06/04/after-exercise-you-see-this-aura-this-change-within-them-the-parkinsons-charity-changing-lives-in-nigeria/
Author: The Walking Football
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