By Ishaq Haruna Hardawa
The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Project has held its Community Advisory Board (CAB) meeting to review the activities and progress of the project across its catchment areas in Bauchi and Ganjuwa Local Government Areas of Bauchi State.
Speaking during the quarterly meeting, Chairman of the Community Advisory Board, Dr. Baba Muhammad Gidado, who is also the District Head of Ganjuwa, said the meeting provided an opportunity for members to review the successes recorded in project implementation, identify challenges and make recommendations towards improving the overall effectiveness of the project.
Dr. Baba Muhammad Gidado explained that the CHAMPS Community Advisory Board had conducted a series of community engagements across Bauchi and Ganjuwa Local Government Areas to sensitise husbands on the importance of allowing their wives to attend antenatal care and deliver at health facilities to reduce preventable maternal and child deaths.
He said community leaders had taken measures to encourage husbands within their domains to allow pregnant women to access healthcare services before, during and after delivery.
The District Head of Ganjuwa also appealed to CHAMPS to harmonise the two reports to facilitate effective decision-making and implementation.
He urged CAB members to familiarise themselves with the activities, procedures and guidelines of the CHAMPS Project to enable them provide appropriate information and responses during community engagements.
Dr. Baba Gidado further appealed to local government authorities to improve access roads and healthcare facilities for people living in hard-to-reach communities to enhance health outcomes.
In his remarks, the Bauchi State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sani Muhammad Dambam, said the state government had invested significant resources in the health sector, including the provision of at least one functional hospital in each ward, recruitment of healthcare workers and provision of ambulance services for pregnant women.
Dr. Sani Dambam emphasised the importance of pregnant women accessing healthcare services and called on husbands to recommit themselves to protecting the health and wellbeing of their wives and children.
He commended the CHAMPS Project for its efforts to identify the causes of child mortality in Bauchi and Ganjuwa Local Government Areas.
In a presentation, the Lead for Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS), Dr. Aisha Zaidu, said timely notification of deaths was critical to the project’s efforts to establish the causes of death among children.
Dr. Aisha Zaidu explained that, in the eleventh year of the project, mortality surveillance had already exceeded the target of 100 cases set for the year.
She appealed to heads of families to allow the conduct of the MITS procedure before burial, to identify preventable causes of child deaths.
The meeting was held under the theme: “Timely Notification, Better Evidence for Healthy Children.”