EU, UNICEF engage 106 health workers to curb mortality in Kebbi

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Union (EU) have supported Kebbi State with 106 health workers, comprising 45 midwives and 61 Senior Community Health Extension Workers (SCHEW) to address manpower gaps across 27 primary healthcare facilities in Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Jega and Fakai Councils of the state under the UNICEF and EU Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) project.

Speaking to journalists, the health facilitator in charge of primary health care in Kimba and Jega Councils, Abubakar Saidu, said the support has increased delivery in the facility from zero to between 10 and 20 monthly, adding: “Before the intervention, we had no female midwife in the facility, a development that sent away pregnant mothers from delivery in the centre.

“This is because in this part of the country, most pregnant women do not allow men to examine or help them deliver their babies. They prefer to deliver at home if there is no trained woman to attend to them.

“But the situation changed when UNICEF and EU supported us with a female midwife and a SCHEW.” Saidu said the health workers, on resumption carried out community mobilisation and house-to-house sensitisation to inform women of their presence and the need to deliver in the facility, a development, he said has increase uptake of health services by women and children in the facility from 50 to 60 people to between 400 and 600 monthly.

The midwife, Ms. Juan Victor, said she and her colleagues were supposed to provide 24-hour services, but could not do so due to the problem of accommodation.The leader of the team and Communication Specialists, Mallam Rabiu Musa, said they were in Kebbi to assess some the EU/UNICEF projects across the state, commending the state government for its cooperation and support toward achieving the same objective.