THE figures had been damning. On the average, more than 91 out of about 1,000 Nigerian infants delivered die before their first birthday.
The huge resources available notwithstanding, these figures showed, according to the CIA World Factbook in November, that more infants under one-year of age, die in Nigeria than in any other African country.
An earlier report by Save the Children Fund had indicated that infant and maternal mortality were unacceptably high in some states, including Jigawa where majority of the women still deliver their babies at home, without proper medical attention from qualified birth attendants.
The report had also urged the governments to rise up to the challenge and deploy enough resources and collaborate with donor agencies to improve the situation.
It would appear that it was in response to frightening figures and the desire to save the lives of more Jigawa infants and their mothers that the Maternal Newborn Child Health (MNCH) Week was held in Kiyawa Local Council of the state last week.
One of the earliest to arrive was Mrs. Lubabatu Kiyawa who brought her one-year-old son to the Primary Health Centre in Shuwarin, Kyawa Local Council for medical check-up.
She said she and other women in the rural Kiyawa Community had heard about the exercise and wanted to avail themselves of the opportunity the Maternal Newborn Child Health Week afforded.
She told The Guardian that the exercise, which was sponsored by UNICEF, gave her and many other rural mothers opportunity to learn about proper nutrition for them and their babies and the need to breast-feed the baby exclusively, for six months.
“I was here in May when my child was about four months.
“They had examined him then and told me his nutritional level.
“Since then, I tried to do all they told me so he would remain healthy.
“This time, they tested him again and told me he was very healthy.
“That makes me very happy and we thank God for the MNCHW, which has availed us of the opportunity to learn more about how to keep us, the mothers and our children healthy by going for proper medical attention” she said.
It is understandable, therefore, that Jigawa, once classified in a World Bank report as one of the poorest states in the country is doing as much as possible to wriggle out of that mould with the support of UNICEF and other development partners. .
An independent monitor from UNICEF for the exercise, Abdulwahab Babalefo told The Guardian it was very successful.
“The turnout of mothers and their children was almost triple that of May and that indicated a high level of awareness.
“Jigawa State has demonstrated a high level of awareness because of the Gunduma Health System.
“People were trooping in and out of the centres and the Plumpy nuts for the malnourished children were being distributed.
“It lured many more mothers to come out with their babies.”
It was gathered by The Guardian that Plumpy nut is a recently developed “Ready-to-Use-Food,” that has revolutionized the way severe acute malnutrition is treated.
Plumpy nut and similar foods are a 500- kilocalories mixture of peanut butter, vitamins, minerals, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil.
Administered two to three times daily, sweet tasting Plumpy nut can reverse extreme malnutrition in half the time of past products.
The Kiyawa Local Council Immunization Officer, Hashiru Muazu said while they gave anti-malarial and blood supplements to pregnant mothers, they gave the children de-worming drugs and Plumpy nuts for the malnourished ones.
He said two health facilities were provided for each of the 11 political wards in the local council for the purpose of the MNCHW, making a total of 22 health facilities.
“There was a large turn out because a lot of people had come to realize the advantage of the community-based maternal and child health care where they are given nutritional supplements.
“In some wards, we met the traditional leaders and told them about the importance of the week-long activity. And they understood and actually sensitised their people on the need to turn out en masse, which they did.
“We want Jigawa State government to know that this programme is not for the donor agencies.
“It belongs to the state and we want the state to understand that this is the only benefit of the common people living in the rural areas.
“We appeal to the state government to sustain the supply of nutritional supplements, which were supplied by UNICEF.”
The Jigawa State Nutrition Coordinator, Hajia Aishetu Aminu Zango told The Guardian that the community-based management of acute malnutrition initiated by Gunduma project has enlightened the women and contributed to the success of the exercise.
On his part, the Director, Primary Health Care, Gunduma Health System Alhaji Aminu Danmalam, said the exercise, which started two years ago, is a child-survival package meant to accelerate the child survival activities in the state.
“We are running this programme in 576 health facilities across the state, two facilities in each of the 288 wards.”
He said the health workers carried out the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screening whereby a nutritional valve “is wrapped around a child’s upper arm to show the level of his nutritional status and from there determine whether he is nutritionally sound, moderate or in danger to require additional intervention.”
According to him: “The people are responding because this is one of the biggest health events in the state.
“It is a package which draws the attention of women and children in particular because they access services in large numbers and not just for treatment or immunisation or malaria.
“We have everything packaged and being delivered at the same time and that is why the women and the children are patronising the facilities.”
He listed the development partners supporting the project to include UNICEF, the Roll Back Malaria World Bank Project, PATH and ACF.
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