The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has trained 120 health workers in Kaduna on Sexual Reproductive Health, Gender Based Violence and Covid-19 mitigation and care.
The health workers drawn from Chikun and Kaduna North local governments of Kaduna state, were training as part of a Civil Society Organisation Engagement (CSOE) funded by UNFPA in seven states with Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) as lead implementer in Kaduna state.
The Project Officer, PPFN, Hajiya Amina AbdulRaheem, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Kaduna during the UNFPA, PPFN CSOE Covod-19 Stakeholders Close Out meeting to wrap up the 10 months programme, said that the intervention aimed at mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the people especially women and children.
“The programme, which ran between October 2020 and August 2021, picked the most highly vulnerable states Borno, Gombe, Sokoto, Kano, Ogun, FCT and Kaduna, to ensure that essential health services are maintained at the primary healthcare centers. We worked with 16 PHC centers in Chikun, 16 PHC centers in Kaduna North. We distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worth millions of naira to the 32 PHC.
“We also provided android phones for the heads of the 32 PHC facilities to enable the common people in the communities use USSD code to report emergency cases of maternal, reproductive health or GBV at anytime including at night and at odd hours for immediate care,” she said while tasking government to sustain the programme.
UNFPA Programme Coordinator and Head of Northern Nigeria Office, Ms Mariana Darboe, who was represented by Dr Audu Alayande, urged Kaduna state and local governments to take ownership of the programme, noting that international agencies come and go but government is infinite. “Government should continue where we stopped.
“People commit rape and want you to keep quiet and if you don’t keep quiet, you could be shot or stabbed by someone in the community. We need to work on database that we can always use for advocacy and resource mobilisation. UNFPA is committed to eliminating all sorts of gender based violence by 2030,” Mariana said.
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