Zamfara Governor Offers Assurance to MNCH2 on Sustainability of Life Saving Interventions

 Martins Ifijeh

The Zamfara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, has pledged to sustain activities of the Maternal Newborn and Child Health programme (MNCH2) in the state.

The governor made the pledge recently during an engagement with key stakeholders including the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole and Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, in a bid to tackle the current meningitis outbreak in his state.

Yari, who promised to sustain the interventions of the programme after it exits, assured that life saving drugs and commodities will continue to be made available to women and children in the state for free. He also gave a nod of approval to partnership talks between the state and the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) for the operationalisation of the Volunteer Obstetrics Scheme (VOS) and the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance Review (MPDSR).

National Team Leader, Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo briefed the governor on the activities of the programme in the state. She encouraged the governor to employ graduates of the community midwifery programme in order to bridge the human resource gap in the state’s health system.

Earlier, Dr. Anas-Kolo briefed the Health Minister of the support of MNCH2 in the area of making drugs available for the treatment of meningitis patients across the 14 LGAs of the state.

Zamfara is one of six states in the country supported by the MNCH2 programme including Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, and Yobe.