GOMBE – Target State High Impact Project (Tship), a USAID sponsored NGO, said it has trained 570 volunteers and supervisors for the distribution of misoprosotol and chlorthexidine 4 per cent gel to pregnant women in Gombe state.
Dr Olayinka Faruk, the National Coordinator, Chlorthexidine Tship, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Monday.
Faruk said that misoprostol is a tablet that prevents bleeding after child birth while Chlorthexidine 4 per cent gel prevents umbilical cord infection in newborn babies.
According to her, out of the number trained, 456 were serving as volunteers distributing the drugs to pregnant women within the communities.
She said 104 health workers would be serving as supervisors educating beneficiaries on how to be using the commodities in their own facilities.
“The supervisors, they also give oversight function to the volunteers and serve as the drug keepers,” she said.
She said they have been working with Gombe state ministry of health to see how they can increase access to maternal health service.
“Our strategy is using community base approach, the approach was learnt from Sokoto and Bauchi states where Tship mainly work.
“This intervention is working through the achieving of MDGs four and five.
“Sokoto is the model state and we trained volunteers across the 244 wards of the state.
“Since then, they had recorded success with about 77,000 women have had access to the intervention.
“What we did was, when the success of Sokoto state was resounding, we invited all the states in Nigeria to come and see.
“Gombe state was the first state that came to Sokoto, and immediately the immediate past commissioner for health, Dr Kennedy Ishaya, went and said yes, this is something Gombe state must emulate, and immediately they followed,” she said.
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According to her, the commodities were purchased in 2014 but launched in 2015 in Gombe with N11 million.
She said when they brought the commodities; they solicited for Tship support to assist them in instituting the community base distribution.
“When the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) sees the commitment of Gombe, they said Tship support them, we will provide you with fund to build their capacity.
“Make sure that the projects become a reality in Gombe state,’’ said the coordinator. (NAN)
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