Entertainment of Saturday, 25 October 2014

Source: Desola Ade-Unuigbe

All hands on deck: Regina Askia joins the Ebola fight

Regina Askia, former Nollywood actress and beauty queen turned Nurse, has shared on her Facebook page that she will be volunteering at a US Ebola Center as a way to help eradicate the fast-spreading virus.

According to Regina Askia, the nurses who volunteered are currently undergoing Ebola trainings. Regina Askia states that even though her initial duty was to find volunteers to work at the Ebola Center, she had to join the men who had accepted an offer of $200 per hour because none of her other female colleagues were willing to join.

She shared on her Facebook page, “My job was looking for Nurses to volunteer for the Ebola center which was moved from our building to another location. My male colleagues said they would do it for 200 dollars per hour, ….C’mon Regina , gotta get on the team…they said. I was not smiling (I am captain of my 3 kid team). Not one female nurse volunteered (lol).

We ALL had to demonstrate proper use of PPE equipment and be proficient with the Ebola protocol. I was full of thoughts as I watched the display, hoods, masks, gowns, boots….almost like a nightmare. Home news had it that Nigerians washed their hands, didn’t hug as much, monitored their temps and on the first signs of malaise drank the ORT (oral rehydration therapy) until symptoms passed.

Were we once again trying to kill mosquitoes with bazookas? I wasn’t going to wait to find out. In a daze I got with the program to become “an Ebola ready Nurse”. More power to all the nurses on the grind – Goodluck!!”