No fewer than 50 Community Health Extension Workers in Ekiti State have been trained by the Rotary Action Group for Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health (Rotary-RMCH) to amplify the call to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths and increase hospital-based delivery.
The participants drawn from three local governments including Ado, Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ijero embarked on a three days training workshop at Ado-Ekiti as part of the ongoing initiatives of the Rotary-RMCH’s “Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria (THFN)” Programs of Scale (PoS) to tackle maternal and child mortality in Nigeria.
The participants were also trained on how to influence and educate the citizens in various communities on the importance of facility utilization, antenatal care and delivery at the health facility.
In an interview, Project Manager of Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria (THFN)” Programs of Scale (PoS) in Rotary International, Toyosi Adebambo explained that the initiative is aimed at improving reproductive health in the state.
He noted that the National Coordinator, Rotary Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (RMCH), Prof. Emmanuel Lufadeju has consistently emphasized “that nobody dies. No mother dies, no children die. Even the father that supported not to die. So, that’s why our project is called Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria.”
He went further to say that: “One of the reasons why we are doing it is to ensure that people in the community understand why they need to visit facilities. Now, we’ve noticed that people do take care of themselves at home using their bowel stuff and all of that and also look at facilities as something they don’t really need to go to.
“But with this, the State Ministry of Health, the state agency has come up with this idea with Rotary RMCH to ensure that people understand why facility-based treatment is the best and going to meet a skilled health worker for everything you have to do makes a lot of sense.
ensuring that they know that there are free medications that they can enjoy, which is provided by Rotary RMCH.
“We try as much as possible to visit a lot of houses. In Ekiti State, we’ve visited over 12,000 houses already in the space of two and a half years and we are hoping to do more. We’ve started some revisitation to some houses also.
“We’re also looking at sustainability. In this case, we will look at what will happen in the next one year when Rotary probably stops in this community, what will happen. And one of the greatest news is the state has promised to continue doing this to ensure that people understand why they need to visit the health facility. This has increased facility usage by over 40% in the space of two years.”
The State Family Planning Coordinator in Ekiti State Ministry of Health and Human Services, Dr. Busayo Ige lauded Rotary International for the training, noting that the exercise will enhance community health outreach and improve health outcomes.
Her words: “Rotary International is doing excellently well in Ekiti state. They are one of our partners and their target is on women of childbearing age and children and the target is to reduce maternal and child mortality.
“So, by doing that, their target is to reduce maternal mortality because when a pregnant woman is able to deliver successfully and the child is alive, the mother is alive, everybody will be happy together, the whole family will be happy together. So when people are able to understand what is going on, they will be able to take steps and be able to have behavioural change.
“It has been helping us since they have come to being in Ekiti state. We can see the improvement in our data in antenatal clinic, in deliveries, in family planning, in immunization. People are really coming out now to take all those things. So we can see the influence of Rotary International in the state.”
In the same vein, the Reproductive Health Coordinator PHCDA ,Mrs Osho Fumilayo urged mothers to utilize the opportunity by enrolling in any Primary Healthcare Facility that has been equipped by the state government for prenatal care and skilled deliveries.
She said: “We appreciate Rotary International for supporting the state. Presently, maternal mortality has been cracked with the support of all these partners, most especially the Rotary International. They have been supporting us in the area of equipment distribution, in the area of commodities supplies and in the area of training.
“To the mothers out there, I want them to make use of the services are available by the Ekiti state government.. All of them are free of charge. So, let them make use of it to reduce maternal mortality in Ekiti state.”
Some of the participants, who commended Rotary International said the exercise has expanded their knowledge on how to effectively conduct community outreach in the communities.
