NGO to prioritise CHEW in Gombe

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7 years ago

IN its effort to improve reproductive health services in Gombe State, an international organisation, Marie Stopes International is to build the capacity of Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW), across seven Local Government Areas in the State.

The Director Clinical Services the organisation, Dr Kingsley Udogu disclosed this in Gombe on Wednesday during a one day meeting on Women Integrated and Sexual Health Service with stakeholders and service providers in the State.

He said that Marie Stopes International Nigeria has been in Gombe state since 2016 working in the areas of Reproductive Health, child spacing among other areas and disclosed that following the survey conducted by the organisation in the seven LGAs only 17 per cent midwives were working in the Primary Health Care facilities while majority of the 75 to 80 per cent staff are CHEW hence the need to build their capacities to enable them perform effectively.

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“We will prioritise this cadres of staff, to enable them to deliver quality service and we will also support them with commodities to serve the poor of the poorest in the rural communities because we have identified facilities without support. We will also train 10 master trainers who are Nurses/ Midwives, to step down the training to others and continue to supervise the facilities after we leave the state,” he assured.

He also said that the expected outcome is to ensure women safely plan their pregnancies and improve their sexual Reproductive health and Rights saying, “We want women to be pregnant by choice not by chance.”

Also speaking the chairman of Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency (GSPHCDA), Alhaji Yaya Hammari commended Marie Stopes International for the wonderful job they are doing in state pointing out that Gombe state has adopted Child spacing because it has more acceptability when compared to Family planning.

Yahaya Hammari also called for the timely release of the amount budgeted for child spacing in the state in order to achieve the set objectives of the program.

Director of Pharmaceutical Services in the Ministry of Health, Mr Malalaku Raphel urged those that would be trained to utilise the knowledge acquired for effective service delivery.