Charity Nwakaudu
The women of Lugbe community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) could not hold their feelings as they rolled out their drums to appreciate Envision Global Care Foundation, for erecting a primary health care building and equipping it with modern medical facilities. The ceremony witnessed a large number of political representatives. The women danced endlessly with joy for the kind gesture shown to them by the foundation.
There was also a free medical treatment for expectant mothers and children courtesy of the foundation in partnership with the primary health centre workers. Programme Manager, Kevin Ogbajie, said they decided to carry out the project based on the information gathered during a need assessment research, that they used to conduct delivery within the primary health centre with candles and other poor medical services.
He looked at the increased rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria and suggested a different approach to achieve the part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in that ensure healthy living and promote well being especially in the area of maternal, new born and child health.
He said that UNICEF report indicated that 814 maternal deaths are recorded in every 100, 000 life births in Nigeria, attributed to lack of money for treatment, distance to facility and transportation means, sociocultural factors but most especially, inefficient infrastructure and service delivery at the primary level:
“We decided to venture into this project because every child or expectant mother you see today is carrying a future personality. Maternal death in Nigeria is a critical issue and needs an urgent attention because more children and mothers are losing their lives due to lack of infrastructure and medical practitioners.”
Some of the women said before now the centre did not have a conducive environment for mothers and their children. An expectant mother, Tabitha Joseph, confessed that before now the centre was small and offer unimpressive services to mothers and children, “but now we are happy because of the new addition.”
Ali Halima said when she had her first pregnancy it was not easy to attend maternity because of the nature of the environment, limited space for large number of expectant mothers who visit the centre for medical attention.
Chairman of AMAC, Abdullahi Candido, appreciated the foundation for such intervention and appealed for more intervention from individuals and corporate groups because government cannot do it all alone.