As the 2023 August meeting commenced across communities in Anambra, the State Government has appealed to women to be cautious about communicable diseases.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Ben Obidike, made the appeal during the first Anambra Women Health Conference held at Prof. Dora Akuyili Women Development Centre Awka, on Tuesday.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the women conference sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), was designed to train the women so that in return they can take the messages of the day down to their respective meeting venues.
Speaking further, Dr. Obidike, said that the event would also help to raise awareness on common diseases that affect women, and how the women in attendance can carry the lessons down to the community levels during the August meetings for the benefit of other women.
He charged the women to take the issue of their health status seriously.
According to him, a healthy living is one of the greatest things in which every living-person and the government can invest.
“Good health is life’s most essential and precious element. We never realise its actual value until we lose it. I believe ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all is important to building prosperous societies and central to building healthy communities and economies. When we are well, it is easier for us to cope with many of the difficulties that we all face.
“I believe the first responsibility of taking care of our health rests with ourselves and with our respective families.
“We owe it to ourselves, our families and our communities to take all necessary measures to protect ourselves and others against diseases. We can all do this by ensuring that we eat well balanced diets, we sleep and rest well, we look after our surroundings and make sure that things around us are clean, and that we exercise regularly.
“We all know that despite all the care we take, we will all at some point in our lives need help from the authorities and especially health service providers (the Ministry of Health).
“We must ensure children, mothers and families have access to healthcare and other services and are safe from violence in homes, schools, and communities.
Today, in this 2023 Women Health Conference, I encourage you all to pay attention to your health and the health and well-being of others.
“Exercise regularly. Eat a healthy diet. Limit alcohol consumption. Keep healthy lifestyles and maintain good hygiene and sanitary practices and try to keep a healthy weight.
While the August meeting proceeded, I urged the women to maintain healthy behaviours to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and protect against other environmental health hazards.
The Commissioner used the event to announce that the State Government-led by Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has mapped out a plan to create additional Primary Healthcare Centres in all the 179 communities in the state.
In her remark, the State Governor’s wife, Mrs Nonye Soludo, asked the women to discuss fundamental issues affecting family and society.
She said that August Meetings should provide important platforms for women to point out peculiar problems that need urgent attention beginning from the ones happening around them.
She called attention to rising moral deficits in child raising, depreciation of family values, drug abuse among school children, parental neglects and quest for illicit wealth among youths as key problems that August meetings can address.
The governor’s wife also called for higher awareness on proper family planning among couples, adding that an unplanned home is an impending disaster.
She reassured the women that her husband’s administration remains committed to making vital policies that will benefit them, noting that the journey to a better state is a collective one.
One of the guest speakers at the conference, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Brian Adinma while discussing common issues in reproductive health, explained that 70% of reproductive health problems could be attributed to three factors which could originate from male or female reproductive systems.
He urged pregnant women to always prioritise good antenatal care, use approved maternity homes and skilled birth attendants, and make adequate birth plans beginning from the first day of pregnancy.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of Anambra State Health Insurance Agency (ASHIA), Dr Simeon Onyemaechi, said that access to health insurance has made health services easier in the state State, with the agency’s coverage for treatment now expanded across over 300 health facilities in the state.
In his goodwill message, the representative of World Health Organisation (WHO), in the State, Mr. Ndubuisi Orji, while commending Mrs Soludo and the State Ministry of Health over the huge success of the programme, also charges the women to be cautious of their health status before, during and after the August meeting.
He said WHO will continue to support the Anambra State Government in ensuring quality healthcare services to the people.
Mr. Orji, noted that WHO was established to improved the health of vulnerable populations and to work to eliminate health disparities in the World
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