By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
In its bid to fight maternal and child mortality, the Rotary Club of Anthony Golden, District 9110, Nigeria, has donated delivery kits, diapers, sanitary pads and other items to nursing mothers at the Mende Primary Health Centre, Maryland, Lagos.
The items were given to no fewer than 50 nursing mothers and newborn babies at the health centre recently.
Presenting the items, president of the club, Rotarian Osemoje Lato, said the donation of the items was one of the areas where Rotary Club is concerned, which is maternal and child health.
“Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in newborn health and in preventing stillbirths, as Rotary International has been in the forefront advocating towards high-quality universal health and have laudable donations to improve access to healthcare.
“As a group, we want to ensure more mothers and their babies have access to effective healthcare, during and after pregnancy. That is why we make donations. Basically, this particular item is for nursing mothers/babies from age 0-3 months. The health centre is very familiar with the club because we have made donations to the primary health centre in the past to serve the community and would continue to do so.”
Lato added, “We are here for one of the areas of Rotary Club’s activities, which is maternal and child health, we are here to donate birth delivery kits
“This is to help prevent infant mortality and increase their hygiene because you find out that some of the mothers do not have money to buy these items, and because we do not want them to make use of old rags and other unhygienic tools, we decided to extend love by donating this items to nursing mothers.”
The project chairperson, Rotarian George Nwibo, said the club was resolute in ensuring access to quality health for Nigerians, including vulnerable groups.
Nwibo stated that the health system needs new radical approaches, which entail harnessing available resources for effective results.
He said, to curb the problems, well-meaningful Nigerians should emulate the Rotary Club and make donations that could improve healthcare and accessing it through collective efforts.
A nursing mother who just had twins and preferred to be identified as Iya-beji expressed joy over the gift items, stating that high infant mortality rate was an issue in most rural communities in the country.
“Since many of the communities’ expectant mothers prefer to go to traditional birth attendants for delivery, because they don’t have money to pay bills and get some of these items, we thank God for this gesture and platform where women are sensitized on the dangers.”