By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
Global Affairs Canada (GAC), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has handed over 45 brand new Boxer motorcycles to the Bauchi Government for effective service delivery in the health sector.
The motorcycles were officially handed over to the State Government through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, by the Chief of Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique on Monday.
The UNICEF Chief of Field Office during the handover ceremony stated that Global Affairs Canada provided the support for adolescent reproductive health in Bauchi State in order to reach the hard to reach areas.
” The purpose of these motorbikes today, which are 45 in number are given for the LGAs, on average two per LGA to reach the most deprived areas, to reach the areas where the children and the mothers and adolescents especially cannot reach the facilities. So that is the purpose, to reach the last child.”
”As you know, UNICEF is always working for the most vulnerable. And the most vulnerable are those at the end of the LGAs in very remote areas facing financial barriers, facing access barriers. And if it is not possible for them to reach us, we have to reach them. And this is, transport being given to all LGAs in Bauchi for reaching those children, mothers, newborns.”
“And as has already been explained, that this immunization is the entry point from all zero dose children. You know, it’s like Thousands and thousands of zero-dose children who have never received any vaccine in Bauchi, all the mothers who have never received any antenatal care, especially adolescents, when the mothers are very young, which is very common in Bauchi that the girls are married at a very early age, which is not good for their health and for their social development,”
“But we need to increase the age of marriage as well as who are already married provided best services for their health so they can give birth to healthy children and they can also survive.”
“Maternal newborn mortality is one of the highest in Nigeria among all West African countries and especially in North East. So that is my request that we should have a comprehensive approach to reach every child, every mother in the most deprived areas to save their lives and to realize their rights to health and services. So that is my plea and we can hand over the keys to honorable State representative” She said.
While receiving the keys of the motorcycles, the Commissioner of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Sani Mohammed Dambam, commended Global Affairs Canada (GAC) for the support through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The Commissioner highlighted the various interventions of the State Government in the health sector, pointing out that in the past 6 years of the administration, Healthcare services delivery has remained top priority.
He assured that the motorcycles will be utilized as directed by the donors in order to reduce maternal mortality rate and improve child health as well as adolescents health and rights.
The Commissioner warned the end users of the motorcycles to adhere strictly to the rules and regulations given to them for the usega of machines warning that anything outside of that will be dealt with.
Speaking earlier, Health Officer of UNICEF, Seyi Olosunde, stated that in UNICEF, immunization is the entry point to delivering integrated primary healthcare services.
“In Bauchi, where we are struggling to improve our immunization, we have done some good work. We have had some improvements, so we are trying to use that improvement to also improve some other indicators, particularly indicators that have to do with maternal, newborn, and child health.”
”Presently, in Bauchi, uptake of institutional delivery is very low, and neonatal care at least is very low. So we are hoping that this intervention, this investment, will contribute to piggybacking on immunization for increase and improvement in coverage of this.”
“Honourable Commissioner, sir, you are aware that Bauchi State is a beneficiary of Global Affairs Canada investment. We started Eight months ago, and one of the areas of the focus is adolescent health and also maternal health and newborn health”.
”So, our plan is that, as we go for immunization, our immunization team will not just go out for immunization, they will also go out with Nurses, they will go out with Community Midwives, so that when they get to the various hard-to-reach areas, these are the people that are not coming for immunization because of distance, geographical barriers, some of them because of financial barriers.”
“So when they go out for immunization, they will also go along with our nurses. They will go out with our community midwives. And as they go out, they will be able to reach more population, and there will be increase in uptake of antenatal care and adolescent health services in those hard-to-reach areas.”
”So these motorcycles that you see today are to increase coverage of maternal, newborn, and childhood. We are also empowering our community-based health workers to be able to provide these services to the people. So when they go out, it’s not just about providing services. The health workers will also be able to monitor our community-based health workers who will be able to do what is right” Seyi said.