From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and European Union (EU) had supported Kebbi State with 106 health workers, comprised of 45 midwives and 61 Senior Community Health Extension Workers (SCHEW).
The support, under the UNICEF and EU Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) project, was to address manpower gaps across 27 primary healthcare facilities in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. The LGAs are Argungu, Birnin kebbi, Jega and Fakai.
Speaking to journalists, the Health facility in charge of Primary Health care Kimba, and Jega Local Government area Mr Abubakar Saidu, said that the support had increased delivery in the facility from zero to between 10 and 20 monthly.
“Before the intervention, we had no female midwife in the facility, a development that sent away pregnant mothers from delivery in the Centre.
“This is because in this part of the country, most pregnant women do not allow men to examine them or help them deliver their babies.
“They prefer to deliver at home if there is no trained woman to attend to them, but the situation changed when UNICEF and EU supported us with a female midwife and a SCHEW,” he said.
Saidu said that the health workers on resumption carry out community mobilization and house to house sensitization to inform women of their presence and the need to deliver in the facility.
According to him, the development has increase uptake of health services by women and children in the facility from 50 to 60 people in a month to between 400 and 600 a month.
However, the Midwife, Ms Juan Victor, who said she and her colleague were supposed to provide 24-hour services, could not do so due to the problem of accommodation.
In his response, the leader of the Team and Communication Specialists Mallam Rabiu Musa said that they are in Kebbi State to assess some the EU/UNICEF projects across the state, thank the Kebbi State Government for their cooperation and support toward achieving the same objective.
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