Jigawa, agency recruits 600 privately-owned vehicles to transport pregnant women, children to hospitals

In a bid to ensure the safe delivery of pregnant women in labour, the Jigawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (PHCDA) has entered into an agreement with over 600 private car owners to transport them to any nearby health facility.

This was disclosed by the director of the PHCDA, Dr Abdulqadir Yakubu, during a town hall meeting at Kiyawa town, Kiyawa local government area organized by Save the Children International (SCI) held at Federal Government College Kiyawa in the state.

Dr Yakubu, SCI through the INSPIRING project will support the programme and include children under five years in any emergencies.

“The programme is aimed at ensuring women are delivering in the hospital and at controlling birth complications, maternal and child mortality cases in the state,” he said.

According to him, under the programme, all car owners were selected by members from the respective community and were screened by the government.

The PHCDA director added that “under the agreement, any car owner would be on alert, he can be called any time to convey pregnant women or children under five years in his area to designated health facility and each car owner is given a stipend of N4,000 per trip.”

He said the state government has a special fund in the PHCDA account for this purpose and the car owners will be paid monthly according to the number of trips.

In his welcome address, SCI state project manager, Alhaji Abdullahi Magama, said as part of SCI efforts to save the lives of children and pregnant women, thousands of health equipment are provided to the state including various training to both health workers and other stakeholders for better health delivery in the state.

The SCI programme manager added that the town hall meeting was organized to give opportunities for community members, medical personal and authority to deliberate on challenges bedevilling the healthcare services, facilities and working equipment in the area.

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