Popular Posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Lagos restates commitment to mother, child health

The reduction of infant and maternal deaths to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Four and Five is still a priority, the Lagos State Government has said.

The Commissioner of Health, Dr Jide Idris, said improving maternal and child health indices is a major concern to the state.

Idris, who spoke to The Nation at the inauguration of the Maternal and Child Centre (MCC), Gbaja, Surulere, Lagos, said maternal and infant deaths are unacceptable, prompting the use of Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (IMNCH) approach. (The approach is to ensure that mother and child receive health care services in the same building.)

According to Idris, Ikorodu, Isolo, Ifako Ijaiye and Ajeromi Ifelodun have been equipped with facilities for the faithful implementation of the approach. He added that this will take off at Alimosho, Ibeju-Lekki, Ajeromi Ifelodun, Epe and Badagry as soon as their buildings are completed.

He noted that the government considered enhanced geographical access to integrated maternal and paediatric services a step in the right direction. Thus, the maternal and child centres would complement primary health clinics.

"The concept of integrating services rendition at the 110-bed centre into the existing general hospital structure was borne out of the desire to ensure that support services were made available to complement the overall provision of qualitative health care to mother and child," he added.

Idris said the MCC would help in the prevention of maternal and infant deaths, saying: "The structure is a 110-bed three-storey building equipped with two operating theatres and seven consulting rooms, among other facilities.

"It would also help in the prevention and cure of diseases, such as haemorrhage, infection, obstructed labour, sepsis, malaria and others. Mothers and children are still dying. Some children still die from communicable diseases."

The centres, he said, would educate mothers on routine immunisation, use of insecticide treated nets.

"The centres would impact positively on the lives of people resident in the area," he said.

The IMNCH Project Director, Deux Project Limited, Dr Walter Olatunde, said the design, construction and equipping of the centre was carried out by his organisation.

The centres, he said, are an integrated facility to ensure complete care for mother and child.

"The project was designed to meet the Millennium Develoment Goals (MDGs) Four and Five, which are to reduce infant and maternal deaths. The centres offer a full spectrum of care such as preventive, treatment and child education and support to the women. Things such as family planning, ante-natal care emergency services for the mother and child during and after pregnancy are there. It has two operating theatres to cater for expectant mothers during delivery," Olatunde said.

He said the Gbaja facility began operation last August, adding that it took a year to complete the building.

"The centre has been adequately equipped to provide optimal patient care commensurate with global best practices. The equipment available at the centre are ventilators, defibrillators, resuscitaires, baby incubators, phototherapy units, among others," Olatunde said.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/health/35906-lagos-restates-commitment-to-mother-child-health.html

Ondo: Extending the frontier of safe motherhood through “Abiye Plus”

Written by Yinka Oladoyinbo, Akure
The pilot phase of the safe motherhood programme of the Ondo State government in Ifedore Local Government Area of the state known as “Abiye” recently marked two years and the government has subsequently expanded the programme to other 17 councils. Yinka Oladoyinbo, in this reports, looks at the projects and the challenges ahead.

TO the family of Mr and Mrs Johnson Adeleye in Ero town, Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State, one of the dreams of their life was to come together as husband and wife and give birth to children that will live after them. However, this dream has been difficult for them to achieve because four years after their marriage, the wife has not been able to have a safe delivery. During the first three years of their wedlock, Folake, the wife had two still births.

If the case of the Adeleyes is pathetic, that of Mr Rotimi Ekundayo may be more touching as he was married to his wife, Adekemi, and they had to wait for five years before the wife could conceive. After confirming the pregnancy and because of their financial status they decided to register the woman with a traditional birth attendant in one of the towns in the local government.

When it was time for the woman to be delivered after carrying the pregnancy for eight months, she went into labour and she was rushed to the traditional birth attendant home. After many hours of labour, she lost strength and she could no longer push for the baby to come out, but because she had lost a lot of blood, she died when the people decided to rush her to a nearby hospital.

However, since the woman could not be buried with the baby, it was later discovered that she was carrying a set of twins, one boy, one girl and this further exacerbated the agony of the husband as he lost the wife and the babies.

These were typical situations in the state which made it to be ranked by the World Bank as the state with the highest number of maternal and infant mortality in the southwest region of Nigeria.

With this picture in mind and faced with unfavourable statistics as far as death of pregnant women and children under the age of five was concerned in the state, government in December 2009 inaugurated a safe motherhood programme tagged “Abiye” with Ifedore Local Government Area as pilot for the project.

The programme was aimed at providing opportunities for pregnant women to have access to unrestricted and uninterrupted medical care from the first day they are confirmed pregnant up till the day of delivery. To facilitate smooth implementation of the programme, the state government after conducting the base line study entered into partnership with one of the leading mobile telecommunication service providers, Globacom and set up a Caller User Group (CUG), which was toll free for the pregnant women and health workers that take care of them.

Each of the pregnant women was provided with a phone that enables her communicate with health worker assigned to her and she was able to update her ranger with information about her condition, this affords the health workers the opportunity of ascertaining the condition of the pregnant women at every point in time. The use of the telephone also created personal rapport among the health workers and the pregnant women, thereby making health facilities utilisation to be at the best maximum.

Speaking on the concept of Abiye, the Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, said, “Abiye basically talks about addressing the issue of maternal mortality and under-five, it is so sad that Nigeria still accounts for more than 10 per cent of the global record of maternal mortality despite being only two per cent of the world population. The statistics is not different in Ondo State as attested to by the World Bank which states that Ondo State has poor health indices in terms of maternal and under-five mortality.

“To a responsible government, a caring heart government and governor, it chose to brainstorm and bring about a home grown strategy that will address the reasons why women die in pregnancy which are basically the four delays and they are delay in seeking health care, delay in reaching health care, delay in receiving healthcare, so we put together the concept of Abiye which has to do with addressing each of those delays with the component of Abiye

“But before then, we conducted the sensitisation, we piloted it in Ifedore Local Government Area where we felt it was easier for us because there were other projects going on there and we feel they could complement one another, and what we did was that we sensitised the entire people of Ifedore and conducted a baseline so that we know where we are starting from and we can know how far we have impacted after a period of time.

“The most exciting thing about the baseline is that only 16 per cent of those that will come and register and have their ante natal clinic will eventually come back to deliver in the hospital and this gave us a clue that 84 per cent will have gone elsewhere and it is an indication of why we have high maternal mortality because they go elsewhere where we cannot ascertain the skill of those who are taking such delivery, so what we then needed to do is to start addressing the delay in seeking health care, making sure that we bring them back to the hospital because we felt it is trough addressing that delay that we can address the utilisation of health facilities which is the third goal of Abiye, increasing hospital utilisation so that we can reduce maternal mortality because at the health facilities we can ascertain who will take the delivery.

“So after registering the pregnant women during the baseline, we assign them to health rangers and they establish rapport, put them on toll free Caller User Group (CUG) prepaid by government and they were in close contact with the health rangers and they can do what they called a birth plan for them, they can also call them when they are close to their delivery or when they have contraption, they can call them to come to the hospital and if there are those they identified to be at risk, then the ambulance will go and pick them they can do Caesarean section for them, the baby and the mother can be alive.”

Two years after, government has a success story to tell about Abiye as there had been a significant increase in hospital utilisation and a near zero maternal mortality rate. The commissioner said in the first two years of the pilot in Ifedore, over 5,000 pregnant women registered under Abiye with over 2, 000 babies successfully delivered under the programme.

The success of the pilot of the programme has however made government to attempt to replicate it across the state under the name “Abiye Plus” in order to ensure that pregnant women across the state can have a story to tell about the revolution going on in the health sector of the state.

Adeyanju stated that expansion of the programme would however come with certain modifications to reflect some of the lapses noted in the pilot scheme. The commissioner explained that adjustment would have to be made in terms of distribution of health facilities in each of the remaining 17 local government areas of the state.

The commissioner said, “That is the beauty of a pilot, a pilot will enable you to have some lessons learnt which will enable you improve on what you are going to do next. During the pilot in Ifedore, we had health facilities in all the wards and we had personnel challenges, 10 wards, 10 basic health centres, four comprehensive health centres and one general hospital. The midwives that we had on ground were not enough to go round. So now we will not do that.

“We have mapped out the facilities, ensured equity in their distribution, we now have to scale down to four basic health centres and two comprehensive health centres, which is where surgical operation can take place and each of these will be in one ward, then complement the remaining four wards with tricycle ambulances, so the tricycle ambulance can move them from the hinterland to the basic health centre or the comprehensive health center or the comprehensive health centre can send its four wheel ambulance to move them that will now address the delay in seeking or reaching health care and in receiving healthcare and in referral.”

He also stated that efforts were going on to solve the personnel problems faced by the pilot programme as the Nigerian Midwifery Council had approved that government retain all its products from the school of midwifery for them to partake in the Abiye programme. He said the state had 32 last year and this year again it would add another 32, so that there would be no shortage of manpower.

The investment of the state is in this aspect of the health sector is expected to bring about further improvement in the maternal and infant mortality rate and this may eventually lead to an increase in reproduction in the state. According to Adeyanju the expansion of Abiye to other local government areas of the state is expected to gulp about N2 billion, while annual child birth is put at 30, 000.

To the state government, these efforts are expected to stop the operations of unskilled birth attendants in the state as people are expected to take maximum advantage of the facilities being put in place by government.

Adeyanju said, “With the kind of facilities we are putting in place, with the kind of approach of Abiye, it behoves on the pregnant women to take an informed decision, we should first put our structure, our facilities on ground and see how we will mobilise the pregnant women to come there because at the ward level we have the community health committee that are helping us in mobilisation and monitoring the rangers to ensure that they do their work and ensuring that the local government play their own part, so they are helping us mobilise. We will go to the three senatorial districts to mobilise them because the baseline is commencing immediately”.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/features/35574--ondo-extending-the-frontier-of-safe-motherhood-through-abiye-plus-

Exciting Opportunities to Work in Maternal Health: Internships, Full-time Jobs

Over the past couple of weeks, our team has noticed a number of exciting opportunities posted on the web to work on projects relating to maternal health around the world—ranging from internships to full time positions. See below for a number of opportunities in the US, Bangladesh, and Zambia!

Project Manager, USA, Ibis Reproductive Health

Ibis Reproductive Health is looking for a Project Manager to be based in their Oakland office to manage research projects and participate in various activities in the US and internationally. The projects may include research on abortion in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and access to reproductive health care among low-income women in the US. The Project Manager’s work will also include developing study instruments, managing IRB approval, coordinating fieldwork, and various other tasks.
Click here for more details.


Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Specialist, Bangladesh, IntraHealth

IntraHealth International, Inc. is looking for a Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Specialist for an upcoming health services delivery project in Bangladesh. The role of the MNCH Specialist will be to provide expert medical and clinical input regarding MNCH and to provide strategic input to support NGO providers in order to improve access and quality of MNCH services.
Click here for more details.



Condomize Intern, USA, The Condom Project

The Condom Project is looking for an Intern to work closely with The Condom Project’s Director of Global Operations and assist her in managing the CONDOMIZE online social community, as well as complete additional tasks at the Condom Project office in New York, NY. The CONDOMIZE Campaign is an initiative of The United Nations Population Fund, in partnership with The Condom Project and The Condom Interagency Task Team.
Click here for more information.



Copperbelt Program Manager, Zambia, Safe Motherhood Program, UCSF

The Safe Motherhood Program at the University of California in San Francisco is looking for a Program Manager for a Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial (CRCT) for the Non-pneumatic Anti Shock Garment (NASG) in the Copperbelt province of Zambia. The study is exploring the life saving capacity of the NASG for women experiencing obstetric hemorrhage. The Program Manager will provide research, administrative and logistical support to the local study site coordinators. They will also be responsible for clinical trial coordination as well as mentoring and supervising student interns.
Click here for more details.


Maternal Health Technical Specialist, USA, Health Policy Project, White Ribbon Alliance

The White Ribbon Alliance is looking for a Maternal Health Technical Specialist to serve as the Maternal Health lead and provide overall technical direction in safe motherhood to the USAID supported Health Policy Project led by Futures Group. The role includes project management, technical input and support to the various programs under this project as well as participation on Health Policy Project committees and working groups.
Click here fore more details.


Be sure to check out the internship opportunities with the Safe Motherhood Program at UCSF that we posted last week!


If you are interested in spreading the word about an opportunity to work in maternal health with your organization, let us know. Email Kate Mitchell at kmitchel@hsph.harvard.edu.

http://maternalhealthtaskforce.org/component/wpmu/2012/02/07/exciting-opportunities-to-work-in-maternal-health-internships-full-time-jobs/

Nigeria records 281,000 case of HIV annually – FG

The Federal Government on Monday in Abuja expressed appreciation on the significant progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but declared that the country records 281,000 new infections yearly.

According to the Federal Government, only 400,000 persons living with the disease are receiving drugs out of the 3 million people currently affected. About 1.5 million people are required to be on life saving anti-retroviral drugs.

The Director-General of the National Action Committee on AIDS, Prof. John Idoko, stated this at the zonal consultations on ownership for sustainable HIV response where he also attributed the irregular funding of NACA by donor agencies to global meltdown in the past three years.

He said, “We have seen very significant progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Nigeria – more than 25 per cent HIV decline between 2001 and 2009. However, we still have very significant gaps.

“Nigeria has the largest burden of transmission of mother child of HIV in the world – 30 per cent with about 70,000 children born every year with HIV. These children hardly live to see their third birthday without treatment.”

Idoko said much remained to be accomplished if future generations were to live in a world in which the threat of AIDS had been overcome.

He said, “If we are to transform the landscape of AIDS, it must remain high on the national and global agenda.

“We must move to a response that is long-term and sustainable-one that makes full use of the knowledge and resources developed over the past three decades, yet continues and respond to a changing world that is constantly influencing the future of AIDS.”

The NACA boss also called on donor agencies to ensure regular funding of the agency.

He said, “Funding remains largely externally driven and this is unsustainable. Over 80 per cent of our funding for the AIDS response is from donors.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/nigeria-records-281000-case-of-hiv-annually-fg/

NHIS: Steering access to quality healthcare in Nigeria

By Chioma Obinna


Yemi had never really been to able to afford hospital treatment. A young widow, she and her family wallowed in abject poverty for years. Already a mother, she was pregnant and jobless when her husband died years ago. Life became difficult.

Things went from bad to worse. At five months gestation, Yemi had not registered for ante natal, nor visited the nearby Primary Health Centre in her locality. The reason was basic – there was no money to pay the hospital bill and other essentials.


*Centre is the Executive Director NHIS, Dr. Waziri Dogo-Mohammed and some of the beneficiaries of the Maternal and Child project of NHIS/MDGs
Luckily, she resides in Ondo State, one of the States benefiting from the National Health Insurance Scheme/Millennium Development Goals Maternal and Child Health, NHIS/MDGs/MCH, Project.

Free medical treatment

Fortunately, her Local Government was chosen for the pilot project. Under the project, select primary health care centres offer free medical treatment to pregnant women and children under the age of five years once they enroll for the scheme. This was the saving grace for Yemi.

She had her baby in a safe and healthy environment. Today, she and her baby are hale and hearty thanks to the NHIS/MDGs’ MCH project. Kelechi, a 20-year-old orphan who hails from Imo state was unable to finish school. Since her parents died, she became pregnant in the process of making ends meet.

Unfortunately, her supposed partner had no regular source of income and was unable to support her. No one could readily support her and her guardians actually sent her away. Seven months into her pregnancy, she fell ill in the middle of nowhere.

A good Samaritan who turned out to be a nurse in a health centre in that local government area, got her enrolled on the free NHIS/MDGs project on in the state. Kelechi and Yemi are beneficiaries courtesy of the NHIS/ MDGS project under the NHIS benefit package.

Ali Egba, would not have lived to tell his story if he was not covered under the NHIS. A government employee, he suddenly passed out in front of his house. Although he had no money on him at that time, Ali is an enrollee under the scheme. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he presented his card and was treated free of charge.

Many have lost their lives due to their inability to meet their health needs. Statistics have shown that about 70 per cent of Nigerians pay out of pocket for their healthcare needs. A situation, many countries have eliminated through healthcare financing.

This and many more health watchers say justifies the reason for the NHIS to function effectively. It is not surprising that agitation for an efficient and sustainable health insurance scheme in Nigeria has engaged government at all levels since the promulgation of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, Act.

Nigeria continues to fare badly in global development indicators as it was ranked 156 out of 187 surveyed by the 2011 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released in 2011. With a life expectancy of 51.9 years and under-five mortality out of 1000 births put at 138, Nigeria has a low Human Development Index.

The reason may not be unconnected with the fact that the country is plagued with many health challenges ranging from health financing, excessive dependence and pressure on government provided health facilities, dwindling funding of healthcare in the face of rising costs, poor integration of private health facilities in the nation’s healthcare delivery system and overwhelming dependence on out-of-pocket expenses to purchase health.

Global maternal mortality

The country accounts for 10 per cent of global maternal mortality and 59,000 women dying annually from pregnancy related problems.

No doubt establishment of a health insurance scheme became imminent. All over the world, the establishment of a health insurance scheme has continued to tackle out-of -pocket payment by enrollees. It also ensures access to basic healthcare services to all residents of in most countries of the world and Nigeria is not exceptional.

Critical observers have maintained that without a focused scheme in place many Nigerians will continue to struggle to pay medical expenses on their own. And the country’s health indices will continue to drop from bad to worse.

Research shows that four out of five people who go bankrupt in the developing world are pushed over the edge by mounting medical bills. When the NHIS was established under Act 35 of 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria, its aim was to provide easy access to healthcare for all Nigerians at an affordable cost through various prepayment systems.

The desire for a well performing health insurance scheme was premised on two major platforms –– a reliable financing option and an acceptable legal framework.

Participants register with a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), and pay a premium to the same. The employer pays 10 per cent of the employees’ basic salary while the employee contributes five per cent of his basic salary.

The HMO would then link them up with a number of service providers (clinics) in their neighbourhood out of which they will choose their preferred clinic. The participant may decide to change the chosen clinic if at any point he is not satisfied with its services.

Whenever, there is any health issue, the participant or his dependants will just report at the clinic and they are treated without having to pay any fee, apart from the initial premium paid to the HMO. A policy usually covers a couple and four children under the age of 18.

The NHIS was adopted to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, which is to reduce child and maternal mortality rates by 2015. Today, there are thousands of testimonies from beneficiaries like Yemi and Kelechi, in areas where the Maternal and Child Care Project has been launched.

Some of the states include; Imo, Bauchi Oyo, Sokoto, Niger, Bayelsa, Gombe, Ondo, Kastina, Cross River and Kano amongst others. The Scheme has had teething problems, but the real challenge is to amend the law establishing it.

In six years, the NHIS, no doubt has recorded some expected achievements under the leadership of the current Executive Secretary, Dr Waziri Dogo-Mohammed. The scheme has enrolled several millions in Bauchi and Cross River states that joined the scheme, and more are at various stages of joining.

The regulatory body has developed operational tools, guidelines, protocols etc., accredited 7,850 health facilities and 61 HMOs to run the scheme, developed blueprints for implementing the informal sector programme, community — based and Tertiary Institution Social Health Insurance programmes.

Subsidy funding

It has also secured approval to implement MDG subsidy funding for pregnant women and under-five children. Employment generation from activities of new HMOs and expanded capacity of providers, Near completion of a robust IT platform (e-NHIS) to drive operation and regulation of the scheme, Establishment of a vibrant National Call Centre, Establishment of central data centre, Draft of new NHIS Act, re-organisation and restructuring of the NHIS to meet future challenges, monitoring and evaluation system in place for HMOs and providers, enhanced funding to providers (public and private) and improvement of quality of care.

One major achievement of the NHIS is the transformation of the psyche of the Nigerian people from skepticism, resistance to acceptance and expectation. Now NHIS is a household name. People’s expectations are, when will it touch my life? And that has made NHIS develop many programmes to address the different segments of the Nigerian population.

The NHIS Executive Secretary once noted: “We have been able to prove that it can work in Nigeria. We have been able to transplant the idea of social insurance into Nigeria and we have seen that, yes, our people can actually harmonise the ideas. But the real challenge that we have, is the law establishing the organisation, which needs amendment. It needs to be made compulsory, made mandatory, and then everything will roll out.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/nhis-steering-access-to-quality-healthcare-in-nigeria/nhis/

Nigeria: Combating Female Genital Cutting

By Hajiya Bilkisu

On February 6 2012, the world marked the ninth annual International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). 'Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.

The term describes a varied range of practices, including the following: slight pricking or nicking of the clitoral hood; hoodectomy (excision of the clitoral hood); clitoridectomy (excision of the clitoris); the excision of the clitoris and labia minora and majora; and infibulation (suturing) with excision of the external genitalia.'

For those of us working in promoting maternal health in Nigeria the day was marked as a moment of reflection, given the challenges the country is currently facing in achieving the Millennium Development Goals MDGs. Nigeria has one of the highest rates of VVF in the world, a disability that is linked to female genital cutting FGC. Vesico vaginal fistula (VVF) or recto vaginal fistulas (RVF) are holes resulting from the breakdown in the tissue between the vaginal wall and the bladder or rectum caused by unrelieved obstructed labour. The consequences of such damage are urinary or faecal incontinence resulting in the constant leaking of urine or faeces. Vesico vaginal fistulae (VVF) and recto vaginal fistulae (RVF) are serious reproductive health problems for women in the developing world, although they have been practically eliminated in developed countries. The large majority of sufferers are young, poor, uneducated rural women. Most of the cases are in Northern Nigeria with cases also reported in Cross River and Ebonyi states in the South East.

A study by a founder of Forward Foundation in Nigeria Dr Rahmat Mohammed and her colleague Meg Braddock said the estimates for Nigeria of 2 VVF per 1,000 births and a total of 150,000 to 200,000 cases ' is rather low because 'they are calculated from the number of women who arrive at the hospital for treatment. These are the lucky few who have heard (generally by word-of-mouth) that treatment is available and can get to the specialist VVF hospitals, of which 2 out of 3 are in the north. Many actual sufferers do not know treatment is available or cannot get to hospital, and many potential sufferers die in childbirth before the VVF is formed.

The real backlog of cases is therefore likely to be much higher.' Experts identify the 'principal direct cause of VVF is unrelieved obstructed labour. When the mother's pelvis is too small to allow free passage, the baby's head pushes against the pelvic bones. Obstructed labour is one of the principal causes of reported maternal death in Nigeria. Other causes are female genital cutting from traditional surgery done by local midwives called 'Gishiri' cuts to widen the vaginal wall during labour. The social costs of unrelieved obstructed labour and VVF are enormous, including the cost in stillborn babies, maternal mortality and social rejection of women who develop a VVF who are often abandoned by their husbands.

Government and Civil Society organisations are working together to eradicate the scourge of VVF in our communities. Forward Foundation for Women's Health is a Kano based nongovernmental organisation working in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients of vesico vaginal fistulae VVF. Last year it invited AdvocacyNigeria, a nongovernmental organisation working to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations FOMWAN which has been providing integrated maternal health services for two decades in its hospitals nationwide, to join it in implementation of its VVF project in Dambatta, Kano State.

As the world focused attention on the harmful effects of female genital cutting, government officials and civil society have added their voices to the call to end FGC. In a press statement, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US Secretary of State traced the cultural tolerance for FGC which said include 'the faulty beliefs that FGC is "a good tradition" or a religious requirement or that it ensures "cleanliness" and prevents excessive clitoral growth. FGC is also deeply connected to marriage rituals and ideas about protecting virginity and preventing promiscuity.' The release shows that FGC is practiced openly in 28 different African countries, as well as secretly in parts of the Middle East, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Over 130 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of FGC, and three million girls are at risk every year. Most children are subjected to FGC between the ages of four and ten years; however, there has been a recent downward shift in the age of victims.

Secretary Clinton said 'Every government has an obligation to protect its citizens from such abuse. As we commemorate International Day of Zero Tolerance and remember those who have been harmed, we reaffirm our commitment to overturning deeply entrenched social norms and abolishing this practice. All women and girls, no matter where they are born or what culture they are raised in, deserve the opportunity to realize their potential. We must continue to act to end this affront to women's equality and the rights and dignity of women and girls. She said 'No religion mandates this procedure, though it occurs across cultures, religions, and continents. It is performed on girls in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Even in the United States we are fighting this practice. FGM/C became a federal crime in the United States in 1997, but the procedure persists in some communities.

The U.S. Government is working with practitioners in the health and legal community to educate groups about the negative consequences of FGM/C. Over the years, community advocates have found that when men come to understand the physical and psychological trauma FGM/C causes, they often become effective activists for eradication, including fathers who refuse to allow their daughters to be subject to the procedure. Communities must act collectively to abandon the practice, so that girls and their families who opt out do not become social outcasts. This approach has led around 6,000 communities across Africa to abandon the practice, usually through a public declaration. Communities working together can ensure stronger, healthier futures for girls and young women.

From Austria, the Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger put it very clearly: "Female genital mutilation is a severe violation of human rights and must be stopped by all available means. We must double our efforts to eradicate this archaic custom that puts the health of young women and girls at stake. A current report of the United Nations states that while the continued international efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation has brought about a slight decrease in the number of women mutilated; the cutting of women and girls is still very common in many African countries, some areas of Asia and the Middle East - despite national legal bans.

There are also disturbing reports about an increasing number of cases of mutilation of immigrants living in Europe and the USA. This shows that the efforts to effectively implement legal bans need to be intensified and that more awareness must be created. "Female genital mutilation is a particularly perfidious form of violence committed against women. Austria is going to proactively support the protection of rights of girls and women within the framework of the imminent session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and to fight for the worldwide abolition of this discriminating practice", Spindelegger concluded.

Tagged: Health, Nigeria, West Africa, Women
http://allafrica.com/stories/201202090914.html

AU body rejects Nigeria’s human rights report

The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has picked holes in the report presented by Nigeria at its 50th session between October 24 and November 7 in The Gambia last year.

ACHCR, in a statement on Monday, said Nigeria did not include its high maternal mortality rate, and “what the Federal Government is doing to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion in the country.”

The Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights of the ACHPR, Mrs. Soyata Maiga, expressed disappointment with the omissions.

The statement quoted Nigeria’s delegation as acknowledging the “failure to report on Maputo Protocol but still remained silent on the issue of unsafe abortion.”

Another resource person at the session, Ms. Hauwa Shekarau, who made a presentation on women’s access to safe abortion, lamented the rising cases of unsafe abortion and its impact on maternal health in Nigeria.

Shekarau said, “A report by the Federal Ministry of Health estimates that for every maternal death due to unsafe abortion 30 more women suffered long-term injuries and disabilities due to unsafe abortion

“Despite this situation, Nigeria’s report to ACHPR failed to mention any measures being taken to address unsafe abortion, one of the major causes of maternal mortality and morbidity which is easiest to prevent.’’

She recommended the provision of comprehensive sex education, increased efforts to end sexual violence against women and girls as well as the provision of comprehensive services for survivors of such violence as some of the ways to stop unsafe abortion.

Other recommendations are the provision of affordable contraceptive counselling and services as well as the revision of restrictive laws and policies to take care of unwanted pregnancies.

Some participants at the meeting said they were disappointed by the excuse given by Nigeria on the non-inclusion of unsafe abortion in its report on the ground that the statistics presented by Shekarau were sourced from a 2006 study.

They also observed that the document entitled, ‘Nigeria’s Strategic Framework For Reducing Maternal Mortality’ which, according to the delegates, “contained the country’s latest approach to reducing maternal mortality.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/au-body-rejects-nigerias-human-rights-report/

Monday, February 13, 2012

Group battles maternal mortality rates in Ebonyi

Over 5000 women receive free medical tests in the state
The President of Ebonyi State Chapter of the Women Medical Association of Nigeria (WMAN), Agwu Uzoma, said on Saturday that over 5000 women in the state have been screened for various medical ailments as part of the organisation's efforts towards reducing maternal mobility rate.

Ailments screened include diabetes, hypertension and other related illnesses.

According to Dr Uzoma, a further 1000 women would be screened for cancer. She stated that the aim of the exercise is to ascertain the level of the disease in any affected woman so that early treatment can be carried out.

She advised women, especially those pregnant, to be mindful about their health and go to routine ante-natal checks, adding that most of the complications recorded during child birth were due to lack of proper ante-natal care.

http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/group-battles-maternal-mortality-rates-ebonyi