The wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Mary-Maudaline Nwifuru, has promised to prioritize the welfare and well-being of children, women, and internally displaced persons regardless of their gender, age, socio-economic, and educational background.
Mrs Nwifuru gave the assurance during the flag-off of the November/December 2023 Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Week (MNCHW) at MCH Azuiyokwu, Abakaliki LGA of the State.
Mrs Nwifuru, while commending her husband for his giant strides in the health sector’s Charter of Needs, said her office is putting all efforts geared towards reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortalities in the State.
She then called on husbands and relatives to allow their newborns, children, and pregnant women to benefit from the free-of-charge MNCH services.
The free-of-charge services intervention includes health education on Key Household Practices (KHHP), deworming, Vitamin A supplementations, nutritional assessment, screening for malnutrition, immunizations, anti-malaria services, and screenings for non-communicable diseases, and lots more.
Mrs Nwifuru then commended UNFPA, USAID-BA-N, Integrated Health Program (IHP), Ministry of Health, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, and other partners for the design and implementation of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Week in Nigeria, which has closed gaps in reaching the hard-to-reach populations.
Her words: “I appreciate our dependable partners, especially Helen Keller International, Vitamin Angels, UNICEF, and Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N), for their Technical and Financial support to the State.
“I acknowledge with delight my dear Husband, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, for his giant strides in the health sector’s Charter of Needs. Within this record time, the recruitment of medical and paramedical personnel, renovations and equipment of health facilities, payment of worker premiums for health insurance, and payments of counterpart funds for various bilateral agreements are testimonials to the Glory of God.”
“The activities of BERWO strongly complement this. We are encouraged to allow our wives, caregivers, and children to accept these services from healthcare providers at health posts, General Hospitals, schools, markets, churches, etc.,” he said.
In his part, the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Dr Ekuma Moses Ikenna, noted that the program aims to provide a package of high-impact, life-saving commodities to children between 0-59 months and pregnant women.
Ekuma added that the services are primarily delivered to strengthen the routine primary Health Care (PHC) services aimed at improving women’s and children’s health status by increasing the coverage of key MNCH interventions.
According to the Commissioner, the result from the first round conducted in June/July this year showed that 90% of targeted children ages 0-59 months received Vitamin A supplementation, 92% were dewormed, and 0.03% of 579,214 children between 12 months to 59 months of age screened for nutritional status were severely malnourished, which was not acceptable by the Governor.
He, however, called on all stakeholders, market women, teachers, and religious and traditional leaders to release their children, mothers, and caregivers to accept the services being provided in this Second round of MNCHW.
“We are grateful to all Development partners and implementing partners, especially Helen Keller International, UNICEF, WHO, Vitamin Angels, Breakthrough Action Nigeria BA-N, IHP, and Pro-Health, too numerous to mention for the Technical and Financial support to the State.”
In their goodwill messages, the implementing partners, including the Acting State Coordinator of Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N), Rabiat Hassan Ahmed, said BA-N will continue to increase the priority behaviour around Maternal, Newborn, child health, and nutrition.
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