Kwara state government says it targets 100,000 women, pregnant women and 200,000 under-5 children as it flags off the weeklong Maternal, Newborn Child Health Week (MNCHW) aimed at reducing unacceptably high morbidity and mortality among women and children.
Speaking during the flag-off of the project in Ilorin on Wednesday, the wife of the governor, Ambassador Olufolake Abdulrazaq, said that the MNCHW interventions include birth registration, immunization, nutritional assessment, vitamin A supplementation, deworming and growth monitoring, adding that pregnant women will have access to ante-natal care services that includes free hematinics tablets and dose of anti-malaria drugs.
She also said that the intervention is part of strategies of the National Council on Health to improve Maternal and Child Health towards the delivery of high-impact and cost-efficient interventions to women and children in Kwara state.
The Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week is a weeklong event organized by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, State Primary Health Care Development Agencies and the State Ministries of Health.
The wife of the governor, who called on all stakeholders, service providers, community leaders, the media and especially mothers and care givers to ensure complete immunization of children, support improved ante-natal care and nutrition among others, added that the support should not only be through this campaign but also in their respective spaces.
Ambassador Abdulrazaq, who said that most of the maternal and child deaths and morbidity are avoidable if preventive measures are taken, and adequate care is available, added that interventions like this coupled with increased sensitization about taking ownership of one’s health and utilizing health care services could significantly contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality.
“I therefore enjoin our mothers, fathers, guardians, relatives and caregivers to avail themselves and their children and wards of these opportunities as we owe these children a duty of care and protection.
“I also wish to encourage our Religious and Traditional Leaders to work with the health workers to ensure the success of these interventions”.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary, Kwara State Primary HealthCare Development Agency, Dr. Nusirat Elelu, said that programme is another health intervention of the state government, adding that earmarked medical services would be made available in all the 193 wards of the state from July 15th to 19th to ensure increased utilization of low cost and high impact interventions during the period.
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“Outreach teams will move across nooks and crannies to reach eligible Kwarans”, she said.
Elelu, who said that the maternal and infant morbidity indices were still high, however, added that the commitment of the Kwara State Government is changing the narrative in the state, “as Kwara state has one of the lowest under-5 mortalities in the country according to the result of the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MCS).
“The Kwara State Government is
deliberate about issues related to mothers and children as evidenced in all our interventions across health, women affairs and social development.
In his goodwill message, Dr. Emmanuel Eyitayo of the WHO commended the Kwara state government on the health week and other interventions on infant and maternal health. He also commended the wife of the governor for her support on health care development in the statement.
Also, the UNICEF representative charged the intended beneficiaries to participate in the programme and not to put the interventions to a waste, while he charged mothers to come out and present their children to improve health indices in the state.
The state Health Commissioner, Dr. Amina El-Imam, said health is everyone’s business and called on all stakeholders to support programmes to reduce astounding indices on maternal and infant mortality.
