Society for Family Health (SFH) says 88,013 women have accessed various family planning services across the 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Nasarawa State in five years.
Mr Emmanuel Odiniya, Nasarawa State Team Lead of SFH, disclosed this at the Integrat-E 2.0 end-of-project dissemination meeting on Friday in Lafia.
Odiniya said the Integrat-E 2.0 project was a five-year initiative which commenced in 2021 and ended in 2026.
He said 350 service providers, including Community Pharmacists (CPs) and Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), were trained under the project to administer injectable contraceptives and insert implants.
According to him, 24,595 of the women who accessed the services were new clients who might not have had access to family planning services without the intervention.
He said the achievement was recorded through the Integrat-E 2.0 project, implemented in collaboration with the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The state team lead said the trained providers distributed 1,516,833 condoms, administered 13,912 injectable contraceptives, provided 50,401 oral contraceptive pills and inserted 2,222 implants for women who opted for family planning services during the period under review.
He added that the providers were also trained to offer family planning counselling, refill oral contraceptives, administer injectables, insert and remove implants and refer clients to Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) when necessary.
On his part, Dr Omokhudu Idogho, Managing Director of SFH, appreciated the Nasarawa State Government for its partnership and commended the service providers for their performance in contributing to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality in the state.
Idogho urged the state government to take ownership of the initiative and ensure its sustainability following the completion of the project.
He said sustaining the intervention would help to further improve health indices in the state.
In his remarks, Dr Gaza Gwamna, Nasarawa Commissioner for Health, appreciated SFH and other development partners for complementing the efforts of the state government.
Gwamna said the partnership had contributed to the training of more healthcare manpower and strengthened referral linkages between CPs and PPMVs and primary and secondary healthcare facilities.
He said the initiative had contributed to efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality and improve the state’s health indices.
The commissioner assured that the state government would take ownership of the initiative, noting that the provision of affordable, accessible and quality healthcare services remained a priority of the Gov. Abdullahi Sule-led administration.
Pharm. Emmanuel Ede, a trained service provider, appreciated SFH and the state government for equipping providers with the knowledge and skills to offer contraceptive services and some basic primary healthcare services, including treatment of uncomplicated malaria.
Ede said there was a significant difference between the training he received as a pharmacist and the additional skills acquired through the Integrat-E project as a community pharmacist.
He said the training had produced significant benefits for clients and contributed to efforts to tackle maternal mortality in the state. (NAN).
