Firstly, let be say i am not involved in the appeal and i do not know anyone close to me who is directly involved. I make appeals on behalf of An-Nusra Foundation; a duly registered charity which verifies all claims made to Regional Management Teams (RMT) before approval by a 6 man Board of Trustee based on the recommendation of the RMT, it is at this stage people like us are contacted to make post. An-Nusra Foundation was not involved in this case neither did they receive any appeal from Mayowa's family. So what i am about to say is without bias.
Secondly, at this stage it is premature to call the Mayowa appeal a scam. It has been confirmed that she is seriously down with ovarian cancer, the only claim now being made is that the hospital has given up on her and it is the family that went ahead to make the appeal. But this raises two questions. The first is we saw Mayowa herself ask people for help, if it was her family who were trying to "scam" us did they also compel the sick lady to ask for money and where was the hospital staff while this was going on? The second question is if you had a sister or a relative you love and the hospital says there is no hope for her will you not seek alternatives? What if the family still insisted on flying her abroad for treatment? Is there a case in America that they have actually given up on? Its hard, even for non curable diseases there are clinical trials in America, if you can raise 30 million for your love one to go for any of these will you not?
Added to this there are evidences that Emory Hospital, Atlanta, U.S.A was contacted. Those now saying its a scam are claiming the family said they now want to fly her to Abu Dhabi instead. How this makes it a scam is still unknown. I have handled a case with some persons before where we wanted to fly the brother to America then the price was too much we later decided on Abu Dhabi, we were processing the passport when the man died. Can people no longer change their mind on where they want their loved ones treated?
Even more there is evidence that Emory Hospital asked for a Consultancy of about 500,000 and a deposit of 100,000 dollars which amounts to the 32 million raised. The hospital went ahead to say when treatment starts patient can spend up to 30,000 dollars (9 million naira!) PER TREATMENT AND 10 TO 50 TREATMENTS ARE NEEDED.
This was the same ridiculous charges the hospital we contacted in America for the case i mentioned gave us and we settled for Abu Dhabi, perhaps as Mayowa's family did.
Lastly, i will want to urge foundations to step up their game. At An-Nusra Foundation, monies are paid into foundation account and the Foundation pays directly to the hospital, everything ends up being transparent. I think this is something the likes of Aramide Kasumu can adopt for her foundation instead of arresting families of sick people.
Maybe there will be evidence of a scam tomorrow but there is non today and we are playing with a lady's life.
- Eseoghene Al- Faruq Ohwojeheri
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