By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
A community in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State has called on the state government to consider building a health care facility in their locality for easy access to healthcare services.
The community, Ado Gwaram settlement in Rigassa ward, according to residents, lacks basic social amenities, especially healthcare facilities which they say have put the lives of women and children in danger.
They lamented that it appeared as though they were abandoned by the government because they lacked government attention in almost every area.
Haruna Sulaiman, a community head in the area, expressed disappointment over how they were being treated by successive government in the state.
According to him, people in the community, especially women and children don’t get adequate government attention when it comes to their health needs.
“We have enough food here because we farm, but most of our households lack the knowledge of processing them to give the needed balance diet.
“Our women who are in dire need of healthcare services will have to go far to Rigassa town or elsewhere before they can be attended to.” Sulaiman explained.
UNICEF, in Collaboration with the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, had launched an Integrated Primary Health Care Service and Health Camp in Tudun Biri of Igabi LGA, following the Vice President, Kashim Shettima’s visit after a drone attack in the community by the Nigerian Army, where he discovered that a large number of children were malnourished.
The Health Camp which was later expanded to the 12 wards of the LGA, offers a wide range of critical services, including nutrition counseling, immunizations, Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screening, Vitamin A supplementation, Tuberculosis (TB) screening, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening, among others.
This impressive turnout of the camp which is still ongoing is largely due to extensive mass mobilization efforts, underscoring the community’s readiness and enthusiasm to engage with healthcare initiatives.
However, the community head while reacting to the health camp, commended UNICEF, Kaduna state government and other partners for the health exercise in the community, describing it as critical in improving the health status of the community.
A Community Volunteer, Atine Jume, noted that most times the only time you know women in the community are pregnant is through observation and monitoring in gatherings such as weddings and naming ceremonies.
She said distance to facilities and financial incapability sometimes play a role in deterring the women from seeking healthcare services, especially routine check-ups, antenatal and even delivery.
Jume, however called on l Government to build health facility for them in the community, adding that they would continue to sensitize the women need and importance of antenatal services, and immunisation of their babies after birth.
“In the cause of doing this, we sometimes quarrel with the women who always accuse us of disturbing them. If they insist we sometimes report them to their husbands or the ward head”. She said.
Addressing journalists during the exercise, Mrs Chinwe Ezeife, UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Kaduna Field Office, said health camp was planned to improve the health and nutrition status of children and women in the LGA.
She said malnutrition cannot be talked about without other health indices including water, hygiene and sanitation, birth registration, antenatal services, immunisation, tetanus for pregnant women, and vitamin ‘A’ supplementation among others, which were observed to be poor.
“We want to quickly establish the nutritional situation in Igabi LGA. Tudun Biri is just a community, what ever is happening there has a likelihood in other wards and settlements in the LGA because it is a homogeneous community,” she added.
According to her, the intervention is targeted at 145,000 children for nutrition and other services in the LGA, adding that 116 health teams comprising of six persons in each team where three provide health services and nutrition, while the others record child birth registration, water and hygiene practices.
She also said that antenatal services, counseling of children and pregnant women on appropriate infact and young child complementing feeding are also being provided.
Ezeife disclosed that they were also using the opportunity to fetch out the children who have not received any immunisation since their birth, where upon diagnosis, they would either be addressed there or referred to high facilities.
“We have seen many children who have been once screened and those who are severely wasted. As we are documenting them, we do that after we have start them on treatment of severe wasting with Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF). Beyond today, they will continue visiting health facilities to continue treatment,” she explained.
Earlier, the Director Public Health, at the state Ministry of Health, Dr Abubakar Idris, described malnutrition as not just a health issue, but multisectoral challenge where the state’s Planning and Budget Commission coordinates all the relevant sector and partners in the state so as to have a united approach in fighting the issue.
At policy level, Idris said the state has several policies that were geared towards addressing infant and young child nutrition which acts as guide in implementing interventions that would reduce the burden of malnutrition in the state.
“We conduct mobile outreaches in remote and hard to reach communities to identify children with malnutrition and link them up with services. We also have other programme such the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria project, which are all targeted in the health and nutrition of our children,”he said.
Also, the Assistant Nutrition Focal Person (NFP) of the Igabi LGA, Habiba Yusuf, said the community has numbers of children aged from six months to five years suffering from malnutrition.
She also said they were cases of children who were never immunised.
Yusuf said inadequate and lack of balanced diet and improper personal and environmental hygiene, poverty were some of the causes of malnutrition in the community, while advising the women on patronizing health facilities and ensuring good hygiene and intake of good food.
Newsweb Express 