It is estimated that about 500,000 women in Luda and surrounding villages have so far benefited from the EU-UNICEF Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) implemented under the Social Protection Program (SPP) which is aimed at promoting Maternal, Child and Newborn Health (MCNH) in hard to reach (HTR) villages.
While speaking on the success recorded so far in the program, Secretary of the management committee of the programme in the area, Danjuma Adamu disclosed that since 2017 when the program took off, not less than N15m has been disbursed to the beneficiaries who he said come from even neighbouring state of Plateau.
Danjuma Adamu who commended EU-UNICEF for the intervention which he opined has impacted positively in scaling up family health in the area appealed for more funds to cater for the increasing number of beneficiaries.
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The Women Leader in the area, Murjanatu Atiku also commended EU-UNICEF for coming to the aid of pregnant women and children in the area saying that the intervention was well embraced by the beneficiaries describing it as a positive impact.
She, however, called on the state government to ensure continuity of the programme by the time EU-UNICEF ends it because according to her it has come to accepted by the people and only its continuity will be good.
In his brief about the programme, the Officer in charge of the Luda PHCC, Bashir Abdullahi the intervention has tremendous impact on family health in the area saying that women are now scrambling to attend Ante-natal and post-natal clinics knowing that at the end of every visit, they will go back home with a token of N1000.
He pointed out that because of the daily influx of beneficiaries the facility has become grossly inadequate and needs to be expanded to contain the number just as he too expressed fear that if EU-UNICEF ends the program it will negatively affect family health in the are.
Fatimah Saidu is a 19-year-old mother who attended ante-natal and post-natal clinic following her delivery at the facility and got a total of N12, 000 which she said complemented her in having improved health as well as her one-month-old baby which she brought for immunisation on the day of the visit.
As for the mother of 9 months old Yusuf Abdullahi, Amina Abdullahi, the program is a way of promoting quality family health appealing that the program should not be stopped but rather strengthened to enable it to reach many more women in the area.
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