Saraki Reiterates Commitment to Save Lives of Pregnant Women, Newborn Babies

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The wife of the Senate President and President, Wellbeing Foundation Africa(WBFA), Mrs.Oluwatoyin Saraki yesterday reiterated her commitment to continue to save the lives of pregnant women and new born babies in Nigeria and African continent .

Saraki disclosed this yesterday at the Ministry of Health’s conference room in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital during the occasion of the Dissemination of Phase 1 and 2 Results of Emergency Obstetrics and the Newborn Care (EmONC) launch of Phase 3 jointly being sponsored by WBFA, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom and Johnson and Johnson Plc.

She said her pet healthcare project, ‘Wellbeing Foundation Africa,’ has commenced the training of health workers, especially doctors, midwives, and nurses among others in the country, so as to provide new skills and logistics that would enable her to continue to achieve the feat.

The project, which had been widely adjudged successful, had taken off in seven out of the 16 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Kwara State.

She said the intervention became necessary because 80 per cent of all maternal deaths result from five complications, which can be readily treated by qualified and trained health professionals.

Saraki added that, she decided to take up the challenge to provide new skills for doctors and related health staff in the hospitals across the local government areas and the states in the country.

This, she noted that would enable mothers, newborn babies to survive by providing logistics for them at the required stage of delivery.

Represented at the event by Nigeria Country Director of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Dr. Luther-King Fasheun, she expressed delight that the reports in the phase one and phase two of the projects showed that, many lives have been saved, hence the project should be available across Nigeria and also Africa.

“As we move to cover the remaining nine LGAs of Kwara State, we will build on the lessons we have learnt from our partnership to improve outcomes across all the 16 LGAs”

“It is our intention to make Kwara State the shining light, as we move from here to other parts of Nigeria and other African continents” she said.

Saraki therefore, assured pregnant women in the country that she would continue to rise to their needs so as to assist them have safe delivery of their newborn babies.