More Ebonyi Indigenes Reside in Rural Areas - Obichukwu

interview

Ebonyi State Millennium Development Goals (EBSMDG) has evidently meandered into the far-to-reach agrarian Ebonyi communities, collaborating with the villagers to decide the best things for their welfare, provision for their healthcare, viz-a-viz the Environment and executing the projects, a development, the Focal Person for the EBSMDG, a Planner, Mrs. Ngozi Obichukwu, in this interview with Reporter, Felix Uka, gives insight into successes and challenges including location of projects in burial grounds and shrines. Excerpts:

Many people, even some of the elite in Ebonyi may need to know about the Ebonyi MDG. What really is it about?

May be I just need to explain that the Ebonyi State Millennium Development Goals operates on the arrangements of Conditional Grants Scheme. The scheme is purely concerned with the implementation of the projects as in the Millennium Development Goals. These are macro-projects for the development of the human beings in the given state. They projects are located in the rural communities. These projects address the 8 Goals that the MDG is looking at.

Right now, in Ebonyi State, in 2009, we were able to apply to participate in the schemes, funds are being released under certain conditions; that is why it is called Conditional Grants Scheme, there are conditions that we have to meet to be able to attract these funds for the specific projects and programmes.

By the grace of God, we met the conditions in 2009, so we were able to get approval of some funds which we are channeling to some aspects of the goals. These are Goals 4, 5,6 and 7. Goal 4 addresses reduction of child mortality, improved maternal Health, Goal 6, is about control of HIV/AIDS and Goal 7 is Environmental Sustainability. These projects were approved for us for the 2009 Project Year. This 2011, we hope to scale to take on other Goals like Goals 1, 2, 3 and 8. We have not really done much on these ones but then, the Ebonyi State government has been doing something on the other four goals, but not really through the Conditional Grants Scheme. The Conditional Grants Scheme, we are particular about goals 4, 5, 6, and 7 for now.

You talked of child mortality?

In terms of reduction of child mortality, and improvement of maternal health, we have been able to construct health centre, we have constructed 63 health centres equipped with health facilities in the rural areas and these health facilities are cited in the far-to-reach rural communities. The centres address primary health care issues. Dwellers of those communities access healthcare services in the centres where they go for immunization, children who are sick, and mothers who are sick; in fact all the problems in the rural areas as it concerns primary health care provisions are handled by the centres. We have about 70 per cent of the human population in Ebonyi State residing in the rural areas. These health centres are purely to address their health issues and take care of them.

The same thing with improvement in maternal health. You discover that some of the ladies in our rural areas did not have access to such health facilities before now. Some of them used to travel several kilometers to get health services and some of these areas are very far, some not motorable, some are inaccessible, some don't have the means of getting to the town. But right now that His Excellency, the state governor, Chief Martin Elechi has approved these projects and these projects are now in such rural areas for women who are pregnant, from month one to the last month of the pregnancy you have where you can go for antenatal, ailment you have can be addressed. Women have no reasons to again give birth to children at their backyards.

More lives are being saved. And because the centres are primary healthcare providers, so there is a standing directive that in the event of a complex health situation that cannot be handled at the centre they should refer such to the General Hospitals and cases that cannot be handled by the General Hospitals are referred to the tertiary institutions like the FMC, Abakaliki, that is already available in the state. These facilities have much reduced incidences of a child or mother dying during pregnancy and such other cases that used to abound.

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