How fathers are promoting positive health practices in Bauchi

The Fathers for Good Health (F4H) is a UNICEF-led initiative focused on engaging fathers in promoting positive health-seeking behaviors, particularly regarding childhood immunization. The initiative seeks to leverage fathers’ influence within their communities to encourage wider acceptance and uptake of vaccines and other essential healthcare services.

Since it’s inception in 2024, in Bauchi state, the Fathers for Good Health Support Group membership has spread across seven local government areas of the state where it is currently working. The support group was first established in two Local Government Areas of Ningi and Misau with 360 fathers as members in the pilot programme. Currently, the membership of the group stands at 1,130 and efforts are on top gear to spread the membership to the remaining 13 local government areas of the state.

In these local governments, one can witness how the Fathers for Good Health group is making a difference—encouraging men to support clinic visits, routine immunization, antenatal care, and better hygiene practices within their families in the various communities they are operating in.

The members of the support group are experienced fathers, mostly first-timers as well as young, single matured and responsible men, who volunteered to engage themselves in improving vaccine acceptance and promote other healthy behaviours in their communities.

According to the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and National Immunization Coverage survey, Bauchi state in the North-East subregion, has a 35 percent zero dose rate of immunization, which is second only to Sokoto State which has a 51 per cent rate. zero dose means a child that has never received any of the doses according to their home based vaccination record or card. The latest report from UNICEF stated that 13 out of 20 local governments have zero dose children, which implies that almost 556,000 children have never received any vaccine.

In April 2025, the Bauchi State Government, in collaboration with UNICEF flagged off a week-long polio immunization campaign with 2.5 million doses of polio vaccine to end the zero dose status in the state. During the immunization coverage, the Fathers for Good health Support Group played a vital role in resolving so many cases of non-compliances in the local government areas of the state.

Together with the UNICEF team, they were able to track households resisting the vaccines for children by talking to the heads of families who were later convinced about the safety and importance of the vaccines for their children.

Bauchi state has been largely characterised by poor health indices, particularly in the area of immunization. In the area of Immunization coverage, Bauchi state remains a concern, with significant numbers of children not fully vaccinated. While progress has been made, challenges persist in reaching all children with the necessary vaccines.

Despite efforts to improve immunization rates, including initiatives to identify and reach “zero-dose” children (those who haven’t received any vaccines) and addressing barriers to vaccination, achieving full Immunization coverage still remains a battle.

In June 2025, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office led a team of Journalists on a field visit to Kukadi/Gundari wards in Misau local government area of the state where the Fathers for Good Health have performed excellently well in promoting healthcare services delivery system, particularly maternal and child health.

The team of Journalists interacted with some of the members of the support group who shared their experiences on why they decided to volunteer in improving vaccine acceptance and promote healthy behaviours in their communities. The fathers testified that they are happy to be empowered to become agents of change, resulting in improved health outcomes and a culture of self-care and mutual support, ultimately addressing the problem of zero dose rate in the state and other health related issues.

Abdullahi Suleiman is a member of the group, he said, “It was a tough job for us during the immunization coverage because there were so many misconceptions about the vaccines. However, we were able to resolve these cases because even before the immunization campaign, we have been holding meetings with heads of households to educate them on the safety and importance of the vaccines for children.”

He also stated, “During the field work, we also engaged more Fathers who were resisting the vaccines and thank God, we were able to convince them, thereby resolving some cases of non-compliances.”

There is a deep-rooted cultural mistrust concerning immunization in my community,” says Nura Aliyu, one of the Fathers for good health working in Misau LGA.

“As a father of two lovely children, I was deeply concerned about the well-being of my people, but I could not do much on my own not until this group was established, I now had the opportunity to contribute my quota to improve the health of members of my community.

“The idea of women giving birth in the hands of unqualified health professionals and cases of malnutrition among children bothered me a lot. Thanks to the Fathers for Good Health Support Group,  people now recognize the importance of going to the hospital to give birth to children. Our malnourished children are recovering, thanks to the support we getting from the government and other stakeholders in the state” he said

Ibrahim Musa, another father in the group, said “for me, I just wanted to contribute to that change in my community in my own little way and Fathers for Good health gave me that platform because going personally on your own to meet these fathers, nobody will listen to you. Seeing us dressed with our jackets with the UNICEF inscription on it, the communities began to take us seriously and listen to whatever we wanted to say.”

47 year old Balarebe Musa, a Lecturer with College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Misau, who is a polio survivor and a member of the Fathers for Good Health, also spoke on what inspired him to join the group saying,”I joined the crusade of promoting routine immunisation across communities in Misau LGA.”

According to him, he is not happy seeing children who are victims of polio begging of the streets because of thier condition, saying, “Had it been their families immunized these children rigth from their birth, they will not be in the position they find themselves. They are supposed to be schools but they cannot because they are not fit.”

“For the compassion I have for victims of polio, I decided to join this group and play my own part in championing immunization so that children do not get polio, thereby fulfilling their dreams” he said.

He attributed non-compliance with vaccines to ignorance and the negative influence of fathers saying, “I have decided to join this Father for Good Health to talk to our people about the importance of embracing immunisation, particularly the polio vaccine. I thank God that I was privileged to get adequate care, but many did not and are on the streets begging.”

“If I see any household resisting vaccines, I feel bad and take my time to convince them, and I give my condition as an example; in that case, many of them become enlightened and accept it,” he said.

A female supporter of the group in Misau LGA, Hajiya Aisha Yusuf, narrated how they usually achieve success in resolving  cases of non-compliances in their communities.

“In my ward, members of the group usually met three times in a month to track our progress. We usually map out strategies to tackle cases of non-compliances through visitations to heads of households. We also hold meetings with them from time to time because continuously sensitization is key to changing mindset. We don’t force them, we only keep talking and showing them the results they will achieve when they immunize their children” She said.

During a visit to Kukadi/Gundari ward in Misau local government area of the state, Journalists interacted with Mallam Turaki Goje, a former antagonist of immunization in his communities.

He narrated how he prevented health workers from vaccinating his children because of some misconceptions he has about Immunization.

With the activities of the group in Mallam Turaki Goje’s community, the one time antagonist of immunization is now advocating to other fathers to immunize their children courtesy of the intervention of the group.

According to him, “Before now, I was someone in my community who resisted immunization for my household and I frustrated any attempt by health workers to immunize my children.Now, I have a different mindset with the coming of this Fathers for Good Health Support Group because I can now see the good work they are doing in improving the health of the communities.”

Also, Bashir Musa Baba Danmallam, a 25-year-old father of Two in Darazo local government area expressed his misgivings concerning vaccinating his children during the polio immunization campaign exercise in the state, saying that he will not forgive his wife if she allows his children to be immunized.

Bashir Musa, who has been married to 20-year-old Najaatu for the past five years, has never allowed the two children to be vaccinated making them be counted amongst the thousands of vaccination zero dose children in Bauchi State.

Corroborating what the wife said, Bashir Musa, said that he told his wife not to allow the children to be vaccinated or immunized, not even in the hospital facilities.

When asked what his reason is, he simply said, “No reason, I just don’t want my children immunized nor vaccinated. I have not heard anything bad about the vaccines, but I don’t want it for my children. It is personal, while growing up, I did not see my parents allowing the children to be vaccinated and immunized, so, I don’t see the reason to veer off that stance.”

It took the intervention of the UNICEF team along with the Fathers for Good Health Support Group to convince him to accept to immunize his children. Currently, updates on Bashir revealed that he is now championing the benefits of Immunization to other fathers who were against immunization for their children.

Executive Chairperson of Misau Local Government Council of Bauchi State, Salisu Husseini Hardawa, while speaking on the development, promised to provide means of mobility to the 160 members of the Father4Health support group working in the area to ease their operations.

The Chairperson made the pledge while interacting with UNICEF Media Team in his office in Misau during which he commended the operations of the group describing it as a turnaround in effective health services delivery.

According to him, “These people have really contributed positively to the healthcare services delivery in the local government. They have engaged in mobilization and people have responded positively. In the near one year of the establishment of the Father4Health support group, we have seen the positive impact on healthcare services delivery.”

According to him, “They are doing well, going to the nooks and crannies of the area in order to sensitize the people on the need to access healthcare services. The way they are doing it has been fantastic, we are seeing the results.”

He stressed that the Council was doing everything possible to provide quality healthcare services to the people in order to have a healthy community adding, “health is wealth, we must ensure that we provide it,” and assured that the Council will continue to be supportive of every initiative that will improve the quality of human lives in the area.

He therefore assured that the members of the Father4Health support group will receive every needed support to enable them perform their functions effortlessly, stressing that, “On the issue of mobility for them, we will do it in sha Allah, we know that they need it. We will provide either motorcycles or bicycles for each of the Sixteen Wards at the initial stage, subsequently; we will make it go round each of the 160 members of the group.”

On sustainability plan and how government is taking ownership of the initiative, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office Social Behaviour Change SBC Specialist, Mr. George Eki, said that the state government has owned it by ensuring that the state Primary Health Care integrates the activities of the group into its work plan.

According to him, “We have some new projects coming to Bauchi and Adamawa state, and all of them have built into the Fathers for Good Health. So we have transferred ownership of the group to the state government”

He disclosed that UNICEF has been able to mobilize, build capacity and support a total of 1,130 men are members of Fathers for Good Health (F4H) in 113 Wards of Seven LGAs in Bauchi State stating that the Fathers for Good Health Support group has been able to effectively mobilized a total of 109,444 children to be immunized with routine immunization and antigens in the Seven local government areas where they are currently working.

George Eki further disclosed that so far, the group has mobilized 9,252 communities in the 113 Wards of the Seven local government areas across the state stating, “UNICEF in collaboration with the Primary Healthcare Development Board did a rapid assessment using the human center design approach and went to two LGAs namely, Misau and Ningi to find out why parents were not allowing their children to be vaccinated.”

He added, “It was quite interesting to find out some of the underlying reasons why some parents were not vaccinating their children, but many of the respondents, especially mothers, said that the power to give consent to vaccinate a child rest on the fathers. With that information, we came back, taking all that were said from the men, the community leaders, youths, and women before we decided to establish the Fathers for Good Health Support group.”

George Eki added, “The Fathers for Good Health at the inception stage was kick-started with understanding why children in the community were not vaccinated. So we did an assessment where we took some tools to profile all the households in Ningi and Misau, to know where the children who were not vaccinated are and also to know where the children under the age of one who started vaccination and stop along the way.”

He added, “When we did that, we were able to see and get the names of the children, the names of the Fathers, their full details and their house address. So it became very clear to us that we were not doing blind programming. So, if you are going to talk to somebody, with that information you have, you know the exact house you are going to and you know the father you are going to be talking to.”

According to him, “With that, we started with Misau and Ningi and today, we have the Fathers for Good Health in Seven LGAs, given a total of 1,130 of these men in these LGAs. What it means is that, in every LGA where we work, there are 10 men in each ward. So if for instance in a local government you have ten wards, it means that in each ward, you will have 10 selected men who are charged with these responsibilities.”

The Specialist added, “We have funding from the Canadian Government, making it possible for us to reach more Fathers and the Fathers are able to reach more Fathers to get their children vaccinated. But interestingly, one of the things we have built into the Fathers for Good Health, is all are volunteers, they are not paid, that is the most interesting part of their work.”

He also said, “In immunization, especially in polio campaign, I give you an example, in the month of April, we deployed these Fathers in different communities. One important thing they did was  to help us resolve the issues of non-compliance.”

“In all the places where the teams were having challenges, where Fathers were not agreeing to vaccinating their children, they were forerunners, they were the ones in the front talking to the fathers and those issues got resolved. They were doing these job joyfully, so it is the first time we are engaging men in this form,” he added.

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He also stated, “What we always had in the past, are meetings where we sit down and talk to men and after that, no action. This time around, we have decided to place men as the real Field workers who are the one to resolve the problem of non-compliance by convincing parents to bring their children to be vaccinated.”

According to him, “In terms of the amount of work they have done, for the two LGAs, now it is 7 LGA, we are expanding out to Gombe and Adamawa States. We already have them working, but they are working not according to the structure you saw in some of the LGAs you went to. So now, we are going out to do the proper structuring of these groups in Adamawa and Gombe. If you visit these states, the Executive Chairmen of the Primary Healthcare Development Agency have been singing praises of these groups because of the way they were able to help us resolve the issue of non-compliances.”

According to him, “We are planning to expand their scope to include nutrition, education and WASH. This is because the child targeted for immunization is the same child that needs attention for the above reasons. We want to make it a full dose package. Some of the challenges that Fathers for Good Health are facing is that some of them have to travel in very difficult terrain. I have met some using their own motorbikes to go resolve non-compliance.”

According to him, “If someone can be that committed, buying his own fuel, riding his own bike, taking all the risk, just to ensure that a child is reached, I can say he deserve all the commendation. We don’t have all the funds to support them in terms of fueling, providing them with motorbikes for those who want to go and work in those hard terrains, we don’t provide that, but we encourage them to do the much they can do.”

“However, there are commendation coming in from some quarters that they are now seeing the results the group is getting and I am happy to hear that LGA Chairperson of Misau is actually committing to providing some motorbikes to support them to reach all those difficult terrain and hard to reach areas’ he said.